Sidonius Apollinaris

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Gaius Sollius Modestus Sidonius Apollinaris (born November 5, 431 or 432 in Lyon , † after 479 in Clermont-Ferrand ) was a high Gallo-Roman aristocrat, whose life and relationships put him in the middle of Western Roman politics in the 5th century. His political career culminated in 468 in the prefecture of Rome, after which he was bishop in Auvergne until his death . His writings are of high literary quality and are also an important source for the history of Gaul in late antiquity . He is venerated as a Catholic saint .

Life

Family and youth

Sidonius' father and grandfather held the high office of praefectus praetorio Galliarum , the highest civil official in the late Roman prefecture of Gaul. The family thus belonged to the so-called Gallic Senate nobility and was also part of the Western Roman imperial elite. Sidonius was trained in Lugdunum itself and in Arles ( Arelate ) in grammar and rhetoric according to the system that has been in force since Quintilian , in which a formal training in brilliant poets and orators, mythological subjects and Roman and Greek history was particularly cultivated. Whether Sidonius had knowledge of Greek is disputed.

Around 452 Sidonius married his cousin Papianilla , the daughter of the later Western Roman emperor Avitus . This marriage produced four children, a son named Apollinaris and three daughters Roscia , Severiana and Alcima . Part of his wife's dowry was the Avitacum estate (probably today's Aydat ).

Political activity

After his father-in-law Avitus, with the support of the Visigoths, who had settled in Aquitaine as foederati since 418 , took the purple after the overthrow of the emperor Petronius Maximus in 455, Sidonius followed his father-in-law to Rome, where he went to his honor on January 1, 456 presented a panegyricus to the Senate . Avitus rewarded him for this with the erection of a bronze statue on the forum Traianum . But the rule of Avitus was short-lived. Already at the end of 456 he was overthrown by a military coup, at the beginning of 457 he was killed and was replaced a little later by the previous comes domesticorum Majorian , who was supported by the magister militum Ricimer .

Many Gallic aristocrats initially refused to recognize Majorian, but Sidonius, like the others, finally submitted to the new emperor and also kept him a panegyricus when he entered Lugdunum 458 . This gesture ushers in a new phase of political activities in Sidonius' life, about which little information is available. He received the title comes and was admitted to the emperor's table. In 460 he was accused of having written an anonymous pamphlet against Majorian, but Majorian did not believe the accusation.

The surprising disempowerment and execution of Majorian by Ricimer in August 461 then ended Sidonius' political career for a long time. He seems to have withdrawn to his domains in Auvergne and Lyonnais , where he devoted himself to poetry, his friends and his children. During this time he turned to Christianity. Presumably, however, he also held positions in the public service at that time.

When Sidonius was officially asked to visit Rome in 467, he moved as head of a delegation from the Auvergne to the new Emperor Anthemius , who had come to power after a two-year interregnum with Eastern Roman support. As a symbol of the reconciliation of the Gallic and Italian senators, Sidonius also wrote a panegyricus for Anthemius , which he presented on January 1, 468, and was rewarded by the latter with the very prestigious office of praefectus urbi Romae . He held this office for at least a few months, perhaps until the spring of 469.

Sidonius does not seem to have been particularly successful in exercising this office, but after the expiry of the city prefecture, as was the custom, he was honored with the high dignity of patricius . The subsequent withdrawal from political life in Rome may be related to the trial of his friend Arvandus , who was guilty of the conspiracy with the Visigoths. While in Italy everything subsequently amounted to a civil war between Anthemius and Ricimer, Sidonius seems to have returned to Gaul, where the Visigoths renounced the Western Roman Empire in 468.

Bishop of Clermont

Sidonius turned back to the country life on his estate Avitacum, interrupted by stays in Lugdunum and Arverni , the metropolis of Auvergne. There he evidently established relationships with the influential Bishop Patiens of Lugdunum and other clerics and perhaps even held an ecclesiastical dignity, whereupon he was chosen in 469/470 or 471 to become Bishop of Clermont.

The great esteem of his family and that of his father-in-law, the former emperor, may have had the effect that the political influence he had on account of his acquaintance and friendship with holders of high and highest secular and clerical offices was decisive for his choice.

So it seems questionable whether his piety played a role in this. With the acceptance of this election Sidonius became the political leader of the Auvergne, because at this time of the dissolution of the imperial power, especially in Gaul, the episcopate had also become a political office, which is why members of the Gallic nobility because of their abilities and possibilities for this post are increasing were appointed. In this way the Catholic Church became the retreat of “Romanism” in Gaul.

Resistance to the Visigoths

In the capacity of leader and bishop of the Auvergne, Sidonius and his brother-in-law Ecdicius, whom he designated as military leader, raised a troop with their own resources and with the support of other aristocrats, and successfully defended the Auvergne for four years (471–474) annual attempts at conquest by the Arian Visigoths under their king Eurich (II.), who had broken the foedus (alliance) of 418 in 469 and sought to expand his empire to the Mediterranean and the Rhône (to Eurich's brother and predecessor, Theodoric II , Sidonius apparently had good relations). After these events, Sidonius had to bury his hope that the Roman order in Gaul could be preserved with the help of the federated Visigoths. Above all, the Arianism of the Goths repelled him. A fundamental change in his identity is therefore emerging: away from the tolerance of the Arian Church and from the principle of foedus to Roman patriotism and the Catholic Church.

Sidonius particularly excelled himself in the fight against Eurich during several sieges of the city of Clermont, whose inhabitants he was able to encourage anew with his rhetorical skills. This stubborn resistance of a region against Germanic warriors was rather an exception in the crumbling Western Roman Empire. The peace agreement of the Roman emperor Julius Nepos (474-475) with Eurich then brought the latter not only the recognition of his sovereignty, but also the cession of the Auvergne by Rome, although Sidonius had rebelled against it until the end. He was therefore banished by Eurich to the fortress Livia near Carcassonne .

Reconciliation with the Visigoths

Sidonius was able to return to his diocese after a year or two from exile. His friend Leo, a Roman who held the post of the highest administrative officer at the court of the Visigoths, seems to have helped him with this. His land was also returned to him after he had kept a panegyricus on Eurich in Bordeaux in 476 . The most dazzling figure of the Gallo-Roman resistance accepted the fact that the Visigoth Empire in Gaul took the place of the Roman Empire and that the collapse of Western Rome could no longer be shaken politically and militarily . Those who wanted to survive politically in Gaul now had to submit to the pax Gothica , whereby the Gothic warriors, on the other hand, were dependent on the cooperation of the Gallo-Roman elite. Sidonius praised the comes Victorius , a Roman, appointed by Eurich , as his patron in secular and his son in ecclesiastical matters in a letter from the year 477, and described him as a pious and compassionate man.

Late years and death

Sidonius used the following years until his death to put together his collection of letters in order to preserve his literary fame for posterity. Shortly before his death, Sidonius was confronted, according to Gregory of Tours , with an intrigue between two envious priests, who for a short time deprived him of his office. However, he was able to return to office soon afterwards. The year of his death cannot be precisely dated, but it is sometime between 480 and 490.

The beginning of the letters of Sidonius in the manuscript Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Ms. lat. Fol. 591, fol. 1r (mid 12th century)
Opera, 1598

Works

Sidonius's writings are of great literary value and an invaluable source of information about events and positions during his adult life and about the conditions in Gaul at the end of late antiquity. The criticism of the Mannerist style from a classical standpoint in older literature is generally no longer shared by newer authors. Against the background of postmodern discussions, the latter recognize the literary play of a writer looking back on a long and rich tradition as an artistic achievement worthy of recognition.

What has been preserved is a collection of 24 poems in various proportions ( distiches , hexameters , hendekasyl letters) from the time before the episcopal office was obtained, and an extensive collection of letters of 147 items in nine books, in which other poems are incorporated, from the later phase of life from approx. 470. The first eight of the poems are panegyrici (eulogies) in the style of Claudian , which document some important political events. Carmen 7 is an eulogy for his father-in-law Avitus on his elevation to emperor. Carmen 5 is an eulogy for Emperor Majorian that shows that Sidonius was able to ignore feelings towards someone who was responsible for the death of his father-in-law. Carmen 2 is an eulogy for the emperor Anthemius , part of Sidonius' efforts to become prefect city of Rome. The other 16 poems in the collection, known as nugae (trivialities), have different contents, e.g. B. epithalamies , petitions and thanksgiving poems, city praise, invitations and others. The poems inserted into letters include epitaphs , parish poems , inscriptions and inscriptions. In the artistically stylized, also humorous literary letters (epistulae) , with which Sidonius consciously places himself in the tradition of Pliny the Younger and Symmachus , a wide variety of topics are touched upon, including those of a literary theoretical nature.

The letters offer a vivid picture of the highly cultivated life of the Gaulish aristocracy in the late late antiquity , with Sidonius having contact with several distinguished Gallo-Romans (including Ruricius of Limoges ). Occasionally, the author's feelings of powerlessness regarding the collapse of the (West) Roman state are clearly expressed, but a cheerful mood prevails. Sidonius by no means expects a break in culture and literary life in the near future, but expects eternal fame for himself and the personalities he celebrated or even just mentioned. Other writings that are only attested by mentioning, such as martyrs' hymns, masses, speeches and sermons and a Latin adaptation of the biography of Apollonios of Tyana von Philostratus, have not been executed or have been lost.

meaning

The family relationships of Sidonius can be traced over several generations, from the time of his paternal grandfather, in the reports on family fortunes, from the celebrity status in late Rome to the subsequent decline under the Franks in the 6th century. Through Sidonius, who had no access to the developing Germanic world and was still strongly attached to the late antique tradition, the church saved at least part of the ancient culture for the Middle Ages .

Sidonius Apollinaris was venerated as a saint soon after his death. His Catholic feast day is August 21 . It is in the Martyrologium Romanum on August 23 . In Clermont, July 11th is celebrated as the anniversary of the translation of his bones.

Editions of works and translations

  • Christian Lütjohann (Ed.): Auctores antiquissimi 8: Gai Solii Apollinaris Sidonii Epistulae et carmina. Fausti aliorumque epistula ad Ruricium aliosque. Berlin 1887 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
  • Sidonius Apollinaris: Poems and Letters . With an English translation, introduction and notes by WB Anderson. London 1936-65.
  • Sidonius Apollinaris: Carm. 22: Burgus Pontii Leontii . Introduction, text and commentary by Norbert Delhey. Berlin 1993 ( studies on ancient literature and history 40).
  • Sidonius Apollinaris . Texts établi et traduit by André Loyen. 3 volumes, Collection des Universités de France, Paris 1960–1970.
  • Helga Köhler: C. Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius. Letters. Book I. Introduction, text, translation, commentary . Heidelberg 1995 ( Library of Classical Classical Studies . New Series, Series 2, No. 96).
  • David Amherdt: Sidoine Apollinaire. Le quatrième livre de la correspondance. Introduction and commentary . Bern et al. 2001.
  • JA van Waarden: Writing to Survive. A Commentary on Sidonius Apollinaris, Letters Book 7. Volume 1: The Episcopal Letters 1-11. Leuven 2010; Volume 2: The Ascetic Letters 12-18 . Leuven 2016.
  • Helga Köhler: C. Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius. The letters. Introduced, translated and explained (Library of Middle Latin Literature 11). Hiersemann, Stuttgart 2014 ISBN 978-3-7772-1414-6 .

literature

  • Patrick Amory: Ethnographic Rhetoric, Aristocratic Attitudes and Political Allegiance in Post-Roman Gaul . In: Klio 76, 1994, pp. 438-453.
  • Gereon Becht-Jördens: A silver basin with a verse inscription by Sidonius as a Danaer gift for the Gothic queen Ragnahild. On the importance of materiality, craftsmanship and poetry in the discourse of the powerless (Sidon. Epist. IV 8) . In: Antike und Abendland 63, 2017, pp. 125–153.
  • Silvia Condorelli: Prospettive Sidoniane. Venti anni di studi su Sidonio Apollinare (1982-2002) . In: Bolletino di studi Latini 33, 2003, pp. 140-174.
  • Silvia Condorelli: Il poeta doctus nel V secolo dc Aspetti della poetica di Sidonio Apollinare. Naples 2008, ISBN 978-88-7564-312-6
  • Eric J. Goldberg: The Fall of the Roman Empire Revisited: Sidonius Apollinaris and His Crisis of Identity . In: Essays in History 37, 1995 ( online ( Memento of February 1, 2003 in the Internet Archive )).
  • Isabella Gualandri: Furtiva lectio. Studi su Sidonio Apollinare. Milan 1979, ISBN 88-205-0179-1
  • Jill Harries: Sidonius Apollinaris and the Fall of Rome, AD 407-485 . Oxford 1994 ( review ).
  • Frank-Michael Kaufmann: Studies on Sidonius Apollinaris . Frankfurt am Main 1995 ( European University Papers . Series 3, Volume 681).
  • Sigrid Mratschek : "The Letter Collection of Sidonius Apollinaris" in: C. Sogno, B. Storin, E. Watts (eds.): Late Antique Letter Collections (Oakland: University of California Press, 2017), 309–336.
  • S. Mratschek : The Silence of the Muses in Sidonius Apollinaris (Carm. 12-13, Ep. 8.11): Aphasia and the Timelessness of Poetic Inspirations , in: Journal of Late Antiquity 13.1 (2020), 10-43.
  • Lynette Watson: Representing the Past, Redefining the Future. Sidonius Apollinaris' panegyrics of Avitus and Anthemius . In: Mary Whitby (ed.): The Propaganda of Power. The Role of Panegyric in Late Antiquity . Leiden 1998, pp. 177-198.
  • Johannes A. van Waarden, Gavin Kelly (eds.): New Approaches to Sidonius Apollinaris. With Indices on Helga Köhler, C. Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius: Letters Book I. Leuven 2013.
  • Johannes A. van Waarden, Gavin Kelly (eds.): The Edinburgh Companion to Sidonius Apollinaris. Edinburgh 2020.

Web links

Wikisource: Sidonius Apollinaris  - Sources and full texts

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL).
  2. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia.
  3. ↑ See Harris: Sidonius Apollinaris and the fall of Rome , p. 36.
  4. ↑ See, among other things, the overview in Norbert Delhey: Apollinaris Sidonius. Carmen 22: introduction, text, commentary . Berlin 1993, p. 5.
  5. ↑ Dirk Henning: Messius Phoebus Severus and the chronology of Praefecti Urbi under Emperor Anthemius (467-472). In: Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy . Volume 108, 1995, pp. 145–158, here pp. 152–156 ( PDF; 78.7 kB ).
  6. ↑ a b Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints.
  7. ^ Frank-Michael Kaufmann, Studies on Sidonius Apollinaris , p. 56.
  8. ↑ Sidonius Apollinaris, Letters, Book 7, chap. XVII.
  9. ↑ Stadler's Lexicon of Saints.
predecessor Office successor
Eparchius Bishop of Clermont
471–486 		Aprunculus
personal data
SURNAME Sidonius Apollinaris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sidonius Apollinaris, Gaius Sollius Modestus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Gallic author, bishop, saint
DATE OF BIRTH November 5, 431 or November 5, 432
PLACE OF BIRTH Lyon
DATE OF DEATH at 480
Place of death Clermont-Ferrand