Sidonius Apollinaris Complete Poems

Sidonius Apollinaris was an inhabitant of southern Roman Gaul in the mid fifth century
AD, when it was threatened by invasions from beyond the boundaries of the Roman
Empire and by competing warlords. His many poetic works include three panegyrics to emperors at the beginnings of their reigns; these are carefully translated and annotated, and provided with comment and synopses. His multiple shorter poems, in a variety of metres, are translated into good and lively English and given separate introductions and notes of various kinds, historical and literary. There is an
extensive and informative introduction to the whole work.

This book by Roger Green, a lifelong expert in Late Antiquity, gives a firsthand account of the political strife and manoeuvring of the times but also a vivid picture of the lives of Sidonius’s like-minded friends in an almost post-Roman episode of Rome’s existence. Sidonius was read widely in the Middle Ages, with a golden age in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and also in the fifteenth century revival of Late Antique literature. Today his poetry will awaken new study and interest, without the archaism of many older translations and with a fresh and updated approach to many issues.

Roger Green is Honorary Research Professor in Classics, University of Glasgow. He was Professor of Humanity in the Department of Classics, University of Glasgow from 1996 until his retirement in 2008. He is the author of several books including Latin Epics of the New Testament (OUP 2006); Augustine
De Doctrina Christiana (OUP 1995) and The Works of Ausonius, edited with Introduction and Commentary (OUP 1991).