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Reading the Future, Writing the Present

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Reading the Future, Writing the Present READING THE FUTURE, WRITING THE PRESENT A literary and interpretive commentary on Sidonius Apollinaris Letter 8.11 Matthijs Zoeter S4264622 Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies (Research) Radboud University 1st Supervisor: Prof. dr. M.G.M. van der Poel 2nd Supervisor: Dr. J.A. van Waarden 1 Longiuscule me progredi amor impulit… (Sid. Ap. Ep. 8.11.14) 2 Table of Contents Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 4 1 Sidonius Apollinaris: Life and Work ....................................................................................... 5 2 Method and Aim of this Commentary ..................................................................................... 7 2.1 Writing Commentaries ......................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Writing commentaries: Dangers ........................................................................................... 8 2.3 Approach and method of this commentary ........................................................................ 9 3 Book 8 ........................................................................................................................................... 10 3.1 Reading ancient letter collections ..................................................................................... 10 3.2 Reading Sidonius’ books of letters .................................................................................... 11 3.3 The structure of book 8 ........................................................................................................ 13 3.4 Overview of the letters ........................................................................................................ 15 3.5 Counting words .................................................................................................................... 20 4 Letter 8.11 ..................................................................................................................................... 21 4.1. Status Quaestionis .............................................................................................................. 22 4.2 Date ........................................................................................................................................ 23 4.3 Names ..................................................................................................................................... 24 4.3.1 Addressee ................................................................................................................... 24 4.3.2 Lampridius ............................................................................................................... 24 4.4 Intertextuality and models ................................................................................................. 26 4.5 Interpretation ........................................................................................................................ 27 4.5.1 The message of Ep. 8.11 in the context of book 8 ................................................. 27 4.5.1 The message of Ep. 8.11 ............................................................................................ 27 4.6 Sidonius and astrology ........................................................................................................ 29 4.6.1 Ps-Clemens ................................................................................................................ 29 4.6.2 Sidonius’ ambiguity ................................................................................................. 30 Commentary ....................................................................................................................................... 33 Section 1 .......................................................................................................................................... 34 Section 2 .......................................................................................................................................... 37 Section 3 .......................................................................................................................................... 42 Carmen 35 ....................................................................................................................................... 48 3 1 Position ..................................................................................................................................... 48 2 Structure.................................................................................................................................... 49 3 Models ....................................................................................................................................... 49 4 Metre.......................................................................................................................................... 51 5 A hidden message? ................................................................................................................... 51 Section 4 .......................................................................................................................................... 67 Section 5 .......................................................................................................................................... 73 Section 6 .......................................................................................................................................... 77 Section 7 .......................................................................................................................................... 81 Section 8 .......................................................................................................................................... 85 Section 9 .......................................................................................................................................... 88 Section 10 ........................................................................................................................................ 95 Section 11 ........................................................................................................................................ 98 Section 12 ...................................................................................................................................... 102 Section 13 ...................................................................................................................................... 106 Section 14 ...................................................................................................................................... 110 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................... 114 Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 114 4 Introduction 5 1 Sidonius Apollinaris: Life and Work1 Sidonius was born on the fifth of November in 429 or 432 in the city of Lyon, his full name being Gaius Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius.2 He hailed from a distinguished family: his father, remaining anonymous, was Praetorian prefect of Gaul, just as his grandfather. His mother was somehow related to the family of the Aviti, a noble Gallo-Roman senatorial family. Hence, Sidonius was educated in the way of boys of noble birth, and after having received lower education in his place of birth, went to Lyon to study rhetoric and literature in Arles. His education shines everywhere through his writings, as he frequently shows off his knowledge by citing classical and post-classical poets (Virgil, Horace, Martial, Statius, Silius Italicus, Juvenal, Ovid) and prose authors (Cicero, Seneca, Pliny, Symmachus, Apuleius), as well as by the many references to mythological stories. Nothing seemed to prevent Sidonius from following in his ancestors footsteps by starting a political career, especially not when he married Papianilla, the daughter of Eparchius Avitus from Auvergne, which brought him as a (not insignificant) dowry the estate of Avitacum, near modern Clermont-Ferrand. In 455, Avitus, now Sidonius’ father-in-law, was proclaimed emperor, and Sidonius travelled with him to Rome. There, Sidonius delivered on 1 January 456 a panegyric to celebrate the consulship of the new emperor, which has been preserved in his oeuvre as C. 7. To crown it all, Sidonius was subsequently even rewarded with a bronze statue in the Forum of Trajan. However, Sidonius’ luck did not last forever. There have been definitely better times to make career than the fifth-century Roman West. The century was arguably one of the most chaotic and threatening periods of Roman history. Barbarian tribes, Vandals, Goths and Huns invaded the borders of the Empire, waging war on the Romans and on each other; in only seventy years, Rome was captured and plundered no less than three times, and the disasters and catastrophes that struck the Roman West ultimately led to its collapse at the end of the century. A stable government seems not possible in this time, and one emperor followed the other. Neither did Avitus’ reign last long: ten months after Sidonius delivered his panegyric, his father-in-law was forced to flee when a revolt broke out under general Ricimer.
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