Delphi Complete Works of Sidonius Apollinaris, page 123
2. nam peragratis forte dioecesibus cum domum veni, si quod schedium temere iacens chartulis putribus ac veternosis continebatur, raptim coactimque translator festinus exscripsi, tempore hiberno nil retardatus, quin actutum iussa complerem, licet antiquarium moraretur insiccabilis gelu pagina et calamo durior gutta, quam iudicasses imprimentibus digitis non fluere sed frangi. sic quoque tamen compotem officii prius agere curavi, quam duodecimum nostrum, quem Numae mensem vos nuncupatis, Favonius flatu teporo, pluviisque natalibus maritaret.
[2] For on my return after my diocesan visitation, I began going through all my mouldering old papers for any chance drafts of letters that might be among them; I worked as fast and as hard as I could, and then had them out and transcribed them with all speed. I did not allow the wintry season to interfere with my resolve of fulfilling your desire, though the copyist was hindered by the cold which prevented the ink drying on the page; the drops froze harder than the pen, and as the hand pressed the point on the page, they seemed to break from it rather than to flow. I have done my best to acquit my obligation before the mild Favonian breeze brings his natal showers to fertilize our twelfth month, which you call the month of Numa.
3. restat, ut te arbitro non reposcamus res omnino discrepantissimas, maturitatem celeritatemque. nam quotiens liber quispiam scribi cito iubetur, non tantum honorem spectat auctor a merito quantum ab obsequio. de reliquo, quia tibi nuper ad Gelasium virum sat benignissimum missos iambicos placuisse pronuntias, per hos te quoque Mitylenaei oppidi vernulas munerabor.
Iam per alternum pelagus loquendi
egit audacem mea cymba cursum
nec bipertito timuit fluento
flectere clavum.
Solvit antennas, legit alta vela,
palmulam ponit manus, atque transtris
litori iunctis petit osculandum
saltus harenam.
Mussitans quamquam chorus invidorum
prodat hirritu rabiem canino,
nil palam sane loquitur pavetque
publica puncta.
Verberant puppim, quatiunt carinam,
ventilant spondas laterum rotundas,
arborem circa volitant sinistrae
sibila linguae.
Nos tamen rectam comite arte proram,
nil tumescentes veriti procellas,
sistimus portu, geminae potiti
fronde coronae,
Quam mihi indulsit populus Quirini,
blattifer vel quam tribuit senatus,
quam peritorum dedit ordo consors
iudiciorum,
Cum meis poni statuam perennem
Nerva Traianus titulis videret,
inter auctores utriusque fixam
bybliothecae;
Quamque post, visus prope, post bilustre
tempus accepi, capiens honorem,
qui patrum ac plebis simul unus olim
iura gubernat.
Praeter heroos ioca multa multis
texui pannis; elegos frequenter
subditos senis pedibus rotavi
commate bino.
Nunc per undenas equitare suetus
syllabas lusi celer atque metro
Sapphico creber cecini, citato
rarus iambo.
Nec recordari queo, quanta quondam
scripserim primo iuvenis calore;
unde pars maior utinam taceri
possit et abdi!
Nam senectutis propiore meta,
quicquid extremis sociamur annis,
plus pudet, si quid leve lusit aetas,
nunc reminisci.
Quod perhorrescens ad epistularum
transtuli cultum genus omne curae,
ne reus cantu petulantiore
sim reus actu;
Neu puter solvi per amoena dicta,
schema si chartis phalerasque iungam,
clerici ne quid maculet rigorem
fama poetae.
Denique ad quodvis epigramma posthac
non ferar pronus, teneroque metro
vel gravi nullum cito cogar exhinc
promere carmen:
Persecutorum nisi quaestiones
forsitan dicam meritosque caelum
martyras mortis pretio parasse
praemia vitae.
E quibus primum mihi psallat hymnus
qui Tolosatem tenuit cathedram,
de gradu summo Capitoliorum
praecipitatum;
Quem negatorem Iovis ac Minervae
et crucis Christi bona confitentem
vinxit ad tauri latus iniugati
plebs furibunda,
Ut per abruptum bove concitato
spargeret cursus lacerum cadaver
cautibus tinctis calida soluti
pulte cerebri.
Post Saturninum volo plectra cantent,
quos patronorum reliquos probavi
anxio duros mihi per labores
auxiliatos,
Singulos quos nunc pia nuncupatim
non valent versu cohibere verba;
quos tamen chordae nequeunt sonare,
corda sonabunt.
[3] I must now ask you not to require of me the two incompatible virtues of perfection and rapidity; for when a book is written, as it were, to order, the author may perhaps expect credit for punctual delivery but hardly for the quality of his work.
As you profess delight with the iambics I recently sent to our very genial friend Gelasius, you too shall have your present in the shape of these little slaves of Mytilene.
* ‘Now has my bark steered its bold course on the twin seas of prose and verse, nor have I feared to ply the tiller on their sundered tides. I have lowered the yards, furled the great sails, and laid down the oar; my thwarts have run alongside, I have leapt ashore to kiss the dear-loved sands.
The jealous chorus of my foes makes muttering; they snarl like furious dogs; but openly they dare say nothing; they fear the public approval which is mine. Hissings of evil tongues beat upon the poop, and shake the keel, and toss the curved sides of my boat; they fly about the mast.
For I, having recked nought of the heaving storms, with the steersman’s guardian art have held my prow straight and come safe to port, winner of a twofold crown. One the Roman people granted, and the purple-robed senate assigned, and with a single voice the company of the lettered, what time Nerva Trajan’s forum saw arise a lasting statue to my honour, set up between the founders of the two Libraries. The other was mine wellnigh two lustres after, when I received the honour of that high office which now alone maintains the rights of people and of senate.
Heroic verse I have written, and much have I woven in lighter vein; elegiacs in six feet I have turned with twin caesura.
Now, trained to ride my course in lines of eleven syllables I have gloried in a swift way; singing many a time in Sapphic metre, rarely in the impetuous iambic.
Nor can I now call to mind all that once I wrote in the ardour of past youth; would that the mass of it might be buried away and withdrawn into silence!
For as we come to our last years, and the goal of old age draws nearer, the deeper grows our shame, remembering the levities of our callow youth.
In the dread of that remembrance, I transferred all my care to the epistolary style, that though guilty of foolishness in song I might be innocent in deed; nor be esteemed one all dissolved in pretty phrases, filling my page with tropes and idle trappings, by which the poet’s empty fame might stain the austerity of the priest.
Henceforth I plunge no more into any kind of verse; be the measure light or grave, I shall not readily be drawn to produce a song again;
Unless it be to sing the trials of men persecuted for the faith, and martyrs worthy of heaven, who have bought by death the reward of eternal life.
First my chant should celebrate the prelate who held the throne of Toulouse, whom they flung headlong down from the highest steps of the Capitol.
Who denied Jove and Minerva, and confessed the blessing of Christ’s cross, and therefore was bound by a raging mob to the wild bull’s back.
That when the beast was driven to full speed over the height, his rent body was flung to earth, and the rock reddened with the pulp of his reeking brain.
And after Saturninus my lyre should sing all those other guardian saints who through many tribulations have proved my helpers at need.
Their several names my pious song may not rehearse; but though they sound not from the strings, they shall ever find echo in my heart.’
4. Redeamus in fine ad oratorium stilum materiam praesentem proposito semel ordine terminaturi, ne, si epilogis musicis opus prosarium clauserimus, secundum regulas Flacci, ubi amphora coepit institui, urceus potius exisse videatur. vale.
[4] Let me at the end drop verse for prose, and so conform to the scheme originally proposed for my book. If I closed an unmetrical work with rhyme, I should break the rule of Horace, and turn out as common pot what began as amphora. Farewell.
* Translated into German verse by Fertig, Part iii, pp. 23-4.
The Biographies
Illustration of Euricat (c. 440–484), who ruled as king of the Visigoths, after murdering his brother, Theodoric II— between 471 and 475, Auvergne was the target of Visigothic expansion and the city was frequently besieged, including once by Euric. Although defended by Sidonius, the city was ceded to the Visigoths by Emperor Julius Nepos in 475 and it became part of the Visigothic kingdom until 507.
INTRODUCTION TO SIDONIUS by W. B. Anderson
CONTENTS
I. HISTORICAL SKETCH:
II. LIFE AND WORKS OF SIDONIUS
TEXT WITH COMMENTARY.
TRANSLATIONS.
LIFE AND WORKS OF SIDONIUS.
HISTORY AND CIVILISATION OF THE FIFTH CENTURY.
THE LANGUAGE OF SIDONIUS.
ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE TEXTUAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
I. HISTORICAL SKETCH:
FROM A.D. 406 TO THE “FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE”
THE sources available for our knowledge of the fifth century are meagre and often obscure, and the attempts of modern historians to reconstruct the facts show marked divergences. Even if the facts were certain, it would not be easy to present in short compass the history of a period so confused, so full of intrigues and struggles in so many countries.
Gaul holds a position of special prominence not only in the career of Sidonius but in the story of the decline and fall of the western Empire. It is reasonable, therefore, to start our narrative at the end of the year 406, when four German peoples (Asding and Siling Vandals, Alans, and Suevians) made an incursion across the Rhine, sacking Mainz, burning Trier, and spreading their depredations far and wide. The invasion of Gaul by the usurper Constantine from Britain in 407 may have checked them for a short time, but he soon allowed them to pursue their activities without serious opposition. In 409 they crossed the Pyrenees and occupied a large part of Spain. Meanwhile the Burgundians had likewise moved across the Rhine from their territory on the upper Main, and in the end the Emperor Honorius, making a virtue of necessity, allowed them to remain in occupation of the province of Upper Germany (Germania Prima) as foederati (413).
We must now turn to the Visigoths, who were destined to play a leading part in the dissolution of the Empire. In 410 Alaric, their king, died, a few months after his capture of Rome. Athaulf, his successor, left Italy for Gaul early in the year 412, carrying off with him Placidia, sister of Honorius. After bringing about the fall of the new usurper Jovinus, who had started an insurrection in 411 and found many adherents, he made overtures to the Emperor, but as he refused to give up Placidia, nothing came of them. He then occupied Narbonne, where he married Placidia (414). Vigorous measures by the general Constantius made his situation in Gaul precarious; he therefore proceeded to Spain early in the following year, probably intending to found a Visigothic kingdom in the province of Tarraconensis, which had not been occupied by the previous German invaders. He was, however, assassinated at Barcelona; seven days later the same fate befel his successor, and Wallia became king. Debarred from food-supplies by the Romans and foiled in an attempt to cross to Africa, Wallia came to terms, agreeing, in return for large supplies of corn, to restore Placidia and to make war upon the German invaders of Spain (416). On the first day of the following year Constantius married Placidia.
Wallia vigorously set about his task of conquering his “barbarian” neighbours. In their alarm they sought to make terms with Rome. The Asding Vandals and the Suevians seem to have gained recognition as “federates” of the Empire, but Wallia was left to work his will with the other two peoples. In a campaign of two years (416-418) he almost wiped out the Silings, and inflicted such grievous losses on the Alans that the survivors at last sought refuge with the Asdings in Gallaecia. The Vandal king Gunderic thus became “King of the Vandals and Alans” and handed down the title to his successors.
Then followed a momentous event. It was decided to allow the Goths to settle in Gaul as foederati. The lands assigned to them were the province of Aquitanica Secunda (extending from the Loire to the Garonne) and adjacent portions of Narbonensis (including Toulouse) and of Novempopulana (west of Narbonensis). Thus began the Visigothic kingdom in Gaul. Wallia died soon after leading his people to their new abode, and Theodoric I reigned in his stead. The same period saw the quelling of a serious revolution among the Aremoricans of Brittany. In Spain, soon after the departure of the Goths, Gunderic, king of the Vandals and Alans, attacked and defeated the Suevians, and, although more than once defeated by Roman forces, ultimately triumphed and established himself in the southern province of Baetica, from which his successor Geiseric was soon to aim a blow at the very heart of Rome.
National feeling in Gaul, which boded ill for the future of the Empire, had been accentuated in the time of the usurpers Constantine and Jovinus, who had found many adherents in that country, and it was further heightened by the severe measures which Constantius took against the ringleaders of the insurgents. It was more than ever necessary to consolidate the loyalty of the Gallo-Romans. From this time dates the regular custom of appointing natives to the office of Praetorian Prefect of Gaul and to the other important official posts in the country. Another significant measure was the organisation in the year 418 of the Council of the Seven Provinces (Concilium Septem Provinciarum), in which leading men of the southern provinces met every year to discuss matters affecting the public interest and to make recommendations to the authorities. Among the provinces which sent representatives were Aquitanica Secunda and Novempopulana; thus the Roman inhabitants of the occupied lands were stimulated to retain their Roman feelings in their “barbarian” environment. The council met at Arles, which had now become the residence of the Praetorian Prefect, after Trier had been sacked not only by the Vandals but on two occasions by the Ripuarian Franks from the lower Rhine. Arles became a proud capital, and everything possible was done to make it a centre of Roman influence.
On the 2nd of July, 419, Flavius Placidus Valentinianus, the future Emperor, was born. His father, Constantius, was made a colleague in the Empire by Honorius on 8th February, 421, but died in the same year. He had worked hard, and with considerable success, to maintain the cohesion of the Empire in the West. On the 15th of August, 423, Honorius died. After two years of the usurper John, the boy Valentinian came to the throne as Valentinian III. For the first twelve years of his reign his mother Placidia acted as regent. From this time the disintegration of the Empire proceeds apace, despite the emergence of a great military leader in the person of Aëtius. The Goths, under Theodoric I, had turned longing eyes on the Mediterranean shores of Narbonensis. Early in the new reign they were hurled back by Aëtius from the walls of Arles to their own territory, where they remained comparatively quiet, but always a potential source of danger, for a few years. The “barbarian” peoples on the Rhine-frontier could not be trusted to keep the peace for long, and the Aremorici might cause trouble again. Gaul thus made constant demands upon the vigilance of Aëtius. This fact, together with the enmity of Placidia and her partiality for less able supporters, prevented him from intervening in another sphere where his tried troops and his generalship were sorely wanted.
In the year 427 Count Boniface, governor of the diocese of Africa, on being summoned home to give an account of his actions, disobeyed and was proclaimed a rebel. Unable to cope with the forces sent against him, he took the fatal step of inviting the Vandals to come to his help from Spain. King Gunderic lent a willing ear to this proposal, but died before he could carry it into effect (428). His successor Geiseric was only too glad to complete the preparations. In May, A.D. 429, the combined host of Vandals and Alans crossed the Straits of Gibraltar. The Imperial government came to terms with Boniface, but this reconciliation made no difference to the greedy schemes of the Vandals. Boniface, now entrusted with the defence of Africa, was no match for the enemy, and was eventually compelled, in the spring of 430, to shut himself up in Hippo Regius, which underwent a long siege. Meanwhile the Vandals made themselves masters of the valuable corn-lands of Tunisia. In this critical situation Placidia appealed to the eastern Emperor, Theodosius II, for help. His trusted general, Aspar, entered Africa with a combined force drawn from east and west, which perhaps succeeded in raising the siege of Hippo, but soon sustained a severe defeat (431 or 432) and was unable to prevent the capture of town after town by Geiseric. Soon almost every important place, with the exception of Cirta (the capital of Numidia) and Carthage, was in the hands of the Vandals. Not until the year 435 did relief come. Aëtius, with his formidable army, composed largely of Huns, seemed now in a position to turn his attention to Africa. Geiseric dared not challenge him. On the 11th of February, 435, a treaty was concluded, whereby the Vandals were allowed to retain, as foederati of the Empire, a part of the African diocese (probably the provinces of Mauretania Sitifensis and Numidia and the north-western corner of the old proconsular province). With a man like Geiseric such an arrangement could not be permanent. An unrestricted African dominion was his first and chief object. His covetous eyes were already fixed upon Carthage.
