Sidonius Apollinaris

• Sidonius was born probably at Lyons. A political figure, writer, orator, and bishop of Clermont.
• A member of a wealthy Gallo-Roman aristocratic family and a friend of Claudianus Mamertus. His father and grandfather had been prefects of Gaul.
• At the age of twenty, ca. 450, Sidonius married Papianilla, daughter of the future Roman emperor Avitus, and entered on a public career.
• He was invited to Rome in 468 by the Emperor Anthemius, and there delivered a panegyric on the Emperor. Sidonius was rewarded by being appointed Prefect of Rome.
• When in 471 the bishop of Clermont died, the people united in a clamorous demand that Sidonius should succeed him. He was not a priest, but had shown himself without ostentation a devout Christian.
• Invested against his will, and without previous preparation, with the episcopate, he laboured hard to repair the deficiencies of which he was conscious.
• In 475, upon the occupation of the city by the Goths, he was exiled to Livia near Carcassonne. In 476/7 he was reinstated and authorized to return to Clermont, but not

before making an act of homage to the Visigothic king.

• He spent the remainder of his life in the cares of his episcopal office.
• He shrank from no duty, personal trouble, or responsibility, and in times of extreme difficulty showed courage, prudence, and discretion. His character and abilities commanded the respect of the best men of his time.

• He addressed a panegyric (456) to his father-in-law, and others subsequently to the emperors Majorian (458) and Anthemius (468).
• He wrote twenty-four poems, modeled on such classical writers as Virgil, Ovid, Statius and Claudius Claudianus ; the poems are dense with mythological references.
• Some of the shorter compositions, especially those in hendecasyllabic metre, are more successful, and touch scenes and characters with a light and discerning hand.
• Though he showed himself a sincere and devout Christian, both before and after he became bishop, it is as a man of letters that he will always be best known.
• He wrote 147 letters which are divided into nine books, in the manner of Pliny the Younger and Symmachus.
• Thirteen compositions in various meters are inserted among the letters, including epitaphs, inscriptions for churches, and eulogies of friends and their writings.
• His letters are an important source for the history and the life of southern Gaul in the 5th century.
• His writings are the best-furnished storehouse we possess of information as to the domestic life, the manners and

habits of public men, the situation of the empire, the aristocratic classes, the Church, the barbarians, and in some points, the public events of the period.

• He translated Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana during his exile at Livia.