“Vergilian” wolves in the Panegyric on Avitus by Sidonius Apollinaris (Carm. 7. 361–368)

Montone, Francesco (2013) “Vergilian” wolves in the Panegyric on Avitus by Sidonius Apollinaris (Carm. 7. 361–368). Acta Antiqua, 53 (2-3). pp. 287-300. ISSN 0044-5975

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Abstract

The article analyzes a simile of the Panegyric on the emperor Avitus by the Late Antique poet Sidonius Apollinaris (430–486 CE). The Vandals who sacked Rome in 455 become terrible wolves. Sidonius has to exaggerate the drama of the event experienced by Rome in order to exalt the salvific role played by the emperor Avitus. Sidonius echoes a lot of Vergil’s pastoral landscapes and other epic similes or phrases by Statius, Silius, Valerius Flaccus, Lucan. This simile is a good example of the poetry of Sidonius and of the literary conceptions of the Late Antique Literature.

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