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THE SADNESS OF EPARCHIUS AVITUS (SIDONIUS, CARM. 7.519-21)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2016

Roger Green
Roger Green*
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
*
[email protected]
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Extract

In his panegyric of Avitus, his father-in-law, the poet Sidonius gives a vivid and often detailed picture of the career of the future emperor from his boyhood until he gained the supreme power in the West in the year 455, which he owed to his ability and accomplishments in warfare, diplomacy and administration. He also enjoyed strong support from both Goths and Gauls, and his repeated success in managing the volatility and the aspirations of the Goths is a major theme. This short note seeks to contribute to the understanding of his emergence as Augustus by proposing a new interpretation of a pivotal passage (lines 519–24), quoted below. The context can be briefly given. Sidonius has painted a graphic picture of the reaction among the Goths to the news of the Vandal capture of Rome in the year 455 (lines 441–57). In the ensuing assembly of Gothic elders Avitus (who happens to be with them at Toulouse at this moment) gives a speech that vigorously praises peace (lines 458–86), and this is favourably received. There follows a speech from the Gothic king, Theoderic II, in which he puts his own strong case for an agreement between Goths and Gauls, and seeks to persuade Avitus to fill the vacuum in Rome and Italy caused by the recent death of the emperor Petronius Maximus and take the name of Augustus (lines 489–518).

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 66 , Issue 2 , December 2016 , pp. 821 - 825
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Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2016 

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References

1 As pointed out by Kulikowski, M., ‘Carmen VII of Sidonius and a hitherto unknown Gothic civil war’, JLA 1 (2008), 335–52Google Scholar, there are hints of a dispute between Theoderic and his brother, which Avitus resolved; but the picture of the general bellicosity of the Goths at this time may be designed by Sidonius simply to show the extent of Avitus’ achievement in containing them. On the panegyric of Avitus, see also Harries, J., Sidonius Apollinaris and the Fall of Rome (Oxford, 1994), 54–81 Google Scholar.

2 Anderson, W.B. (ed.), Sidonius, Poems and Letters (London and Cambridge, MA, 1936), 1.162-3Google Scholar.

3 Loyen, A. (ed.), Sidoine Apollinaire, tome 1. Poèmes (Paris, 1960), 74 Google Scholar. The square brackets are mine, and are used because these words correspond to nothing in the Latin. They are inappropriate, because, as remarked above, the words posse latere and what follows imply a new situation.

4 For this usage, see OLD s.v. quis 1 15. It is impossible that quid here could mean ‘why’, and this has never been suggested.

5 Mohr, P. (ed.), C. Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius (Leipzig, 1895)Google Scholar, ad loc.

6 These are: Edme de Sauvigny, Billardon, Œuvres de Caius Sidonius Apollinaris (2 vols.) (Paris, 1792)Google Scholar and Grégoire, J.F. and Collombet, F.Z., Œuvres de C. Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius (Lyon, 1836)Google Scholar—both of these editions have ‘que les Gaulois comptent sur le secours des Gètes si tu es élevé à l'empire’; Baret, E., Ausone, Sidoine Apollinaire, Fortunat (Paris, 1887)Google Scholar (‘de quel secours pourraient être les Goths sous ton empire’). The translation of Kindler, A. López, Sidonio Apollinar, Poemas (Madrid, 2005)Google Scholar (‘todo lo que los godos podrían aportar bajo tu imperio’) is essentially similar. J. Bellès, Sidoni Apollinar. Poemes (Barcelona, 1989–1992) has ‘T'allunyes preocupat, oh Avit, car saps que els gals no ignoren com poden ésser d'útils els gots si tu ets emperador’, and in the translation of Dr Jesús Hernández Lobato, Sidonio Apolinar. Poemas (Madrid, 2015), from which he has kindly allowed me to quote before it was published, the rendering is ‘Tú te alejas, Avito, compungido al saber que no puede a los galos pasarles por alto cuán útiles fueran los getas contigo de César’.

7 There are two relevant passages outside the panegyrics: in Carm. 4.13 Sidonius uses seruire when comparing his own role as poet to the experiences of Virgil and Horace, implying that they all were spared after being in severe danger, and all served out of gratitude; and in Carm. 16.106 the point is that Bishop Faustus is prepared to reverse his ecclesiastical role and strenuously and self-denyingly serve his disciples.

8 ‘But you scorn to act as the friend and not the Roman.’

9 López Kindler, as noted above (n. 6), has ‘todo lo que’.

10 In Ausonius, Avitus and Claudian, for example, although in the last case it must be added that it is proportionately rare.

11 Avitus seems to have a magic touch in the drafting of acceptable treaties, as shown in lines 308–11.

12 And indeed before Late Antiquity: Löfstedt, E., Philologischer Kommentar zur Peregrinatio … Aetheriae (Oxford, 1936), 69 Google Scholar.

13 Here Anderson translates nam nunc as ‘for now’, but this phrase is equivalent to ‘for the time being’, with no explanatory sense. Loyen, by ignoring the word, lets the contrast speak for itself.

14 The words are those of Semple, W.H., ‘ Quaestiones exegeticae Sidonianae: being new interpretations of difficult passages in the works of Apollinaris Sidonius’, Transactions of the Cambridge Philological Society 6 (1930), 1–116, at 100Google Scholar.

15 The question has hardly been discussed; according to Loyen (n. 3), 186 n. 91, it is Tonantius Ferreolus ‘sans doute’.

16 Line 572. Not Viernum; the form of the name found in all relevant inscriptions is Ugernum, which palaeographically differs only in a single letter, and the explanation of the difference is most likely to be scribal error. Sirmond, J. in Sirmond, J. (ed.), C. Sollii Apollinaris Sidonii Arvernorum Episcopi Opera (Paris, 1614 and 1652), 135 Google Scholar was right to declare the emendation certain, but not in his expectation that no one would disagree.

17 For example, Claudian 17.245 and Paulinus of Nola 6.93 (non/nec se meruisse fatetur), where Claudian is surely the borrower.

18 I wish to thank Professor Jill Harries and Dr Jesús Hernández Lobato for advice and assistance with this paper.