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Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > S > Sidonius Apollinaris


SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS

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(CAIUS SOLLIUS MODESTUS APOLLINARIS SIDONIUS).

Christian author and Bishop of Clermont, b. at Lyons, 5 November, about 430; d.
at Clermont, about August, 480. He was of noble descent, his father and
grandfather being Christians and prefects of the pretorium of the Gauls. About
452 he married Papianilla, daughter of Avitus, who was proclaimed emperor at the
end of 455, and who set up in the Forum of Trajan a statue of his son-in-law.
Sidonius wrote a panegyric in honor of his father who had become consul on 1
Jan., 456. A year had elapsed before Avitus was overthrown by Ricimer and
Majorian. Sidonius at first resisted, then yielded and wrote a second panegyric
on the occasion of Majorian's journey to Lyons (458). After the fall of
Majorian, Sidonius supported Theodoric II, King of the Visigoths, and after
Theodoric's assassination hoped to see the empire arise anew during the
consulate of Anthemius. He went to Rome, where he eulogized the second consulate
of Anthemius (1 Jan., 468) in a panegyric, and became prefect of the city. About
470 he returned to Gaul, where contrary to his wishes he was elected Bishop of
the Arveni (Clermont in Auvergne). He had been chosen as the only one capable of
maintaining the Roman power against the attacks of Euric, Theodoric's successor.
With the general Ecdicius, he resisted the barbarian army up to the time when
Clermont fell, abandoned by Rome (474). He was for some time a prisoner of
Euric, and was later exposed to the attacks of two priests of his diocese. He
finally returned to Clermont, where he died (Epist., IX, xii).



His works form two groups, the "Carmina" and the "Epistulae". The poems are the
three panegyrics with their appendixes; two epithalamia; an acknowledgment to
Faustus of Reji (now Riez), a eulogy of Narbonne, or rather, of two citizens of
Narbonne; a description of the castle (burgas) of Leontius, etc. The letters
have been divided into nine books, the approximate dates of which are: I, 469;
II, 472; V-VII, 474-475; IX, 479. Although written in prose, these letters
contain several metrical pieces. After his conversion to Christianity, Sidonius
ceased to write profane poetry. The poems of Sidonius are written in a fairly
pure latinity. The prosody is correct, but the frequent alliterations and the
use of short verses in lengthy compositions betray the poet of a decadent
period. The excessive use of mythological and allegorical terms and the
elaboration of details make the reading of these works tiresome. The sources of
his inspiration are usually Statius and Claudian. His defects are atoned for by
powerful descriptions (sketches of barbarian races, landscapes, details of court
intrigues) noticeable particularly in his letters, in the composition of which
he took as models Symmachus and Pliny the Younger. Most of them are genuine
letters, only somewhat retouched before their insertion in the collection. They
abound more in mannerisms than the poems and contain also many archaic words and
expressions borrowed from every period of the Latin language; he is very diffuse
and runs to antithesis and plays upon words. He foreshadows the artificial
diction of the "Hisperica Tamina", only the artistic skill of the painter and
the story-teller makes up for these defects. These letters exhibit a highly
colored and unique picture of the times. Sidonius wished to unite the service of
Christ and that of the Empire. He is the last representative of the ancient
culture in Gaul. By his works as well as by his career, he strove to perpetuate
it under the aegis of Rome; eventually he had to be content with saving its last
vestiges under a barbarian prince.




SOURCES

The writings of Sidonius were edited by SIRMOND (Paris, 1652); for new editions
see LUETJOHANN in Mon. Ger. Hist.: Auct. antiq., VIII (Berlin, 1887); MOHR in
Bibliotheca Teubneriana (Leipsig). For an exhaustive bibliography see CHEVALIER,
Repertoire; IDEM, Bio-bibl., s.v.; ROGER, L'enseignement des lettres classiques
d'Ansone a Alcuin (Paris, 1905), 60-88.


ABOUT THIS PAGE

APA citation. Lejay, P. (1912). Sidonius Apollinaris. In The Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13778a.htm

MLA citation. Lejay, Paul. "Sidonius Apollinaris." The Catholic Encyclopedia.
Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13778a.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Joseph E.
O'Connor.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

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