{"id":217,"date":"2020-06-05T22:38:37","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T22:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/histonaut.com\/?p=217"},"modified":"2020-06-05T22:38:41","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T22:38:41","slug":"sidonius-appolinaris-on-king-theodoric-ii-the-visigoth-455","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/05\/sidonius-appolinaris-on-king-theodoric-ii-the-visigoth-455\/","title":{"rendered":"Sidonius Appolinaris on King Theodoric II, the Visigoth, 455"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Sidonius Appolinaris<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The letter written by Sidonius Appolinaris to his brother-in-law Agricola represents an enthusiastic panegyric to the Visigoth king Theodoric II. The real meaning of this document remains unclear without careful analysis of its contents on the one hand and without additional information about its author, its addressee and the conditions of its creation on the other. Exaggerated enthusiasm of Sidonius, obviously, requires logical explanation.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            What\nare we finding out about Theodoric II from this passionate missive?  First of all, this barbarian king happily\ngifted by \u201cProvidence and Nature\u201d is famous for his \u201cgentle breeding\u201d and his\nway of life is praiseworthy. According to Sidonius, Theodoric\u2019s head and face\nperfectly correspond to classical Roman standards of masculine attractiveness\n(finely aquiline nose, thin lips). Strangely, nothing is said about the Gothic\nking\u2019s eyes and their look as if the author describes some sculpture. This\nomission is compensated by touching details about the length of Theodoric\u2019s\neyelashes and fresh color of his chin and neck which \u201coften flush from modesty\nand not from anger\u201d. In spite of the fact that the king\u2019s hair cut and shaving\nstyle somewhat differ from Roman fashion he nevertheless regularly takes care of\nhis look \u2013 hair in his nostrils is cut and the lower part of his face is\nshaven. Sidonius describes Theodoric\u2019s well-built vigorous body and muscular\nlimbs with somewhat exaggerated admiration and I would even say with love. But\nhe knows better the tastes of his potential readers and how to seduce them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Sidonius informs us that Theodoric\nstarts his day with \u201cthe service of his priests\u201d but forgets to precise that by\n\u201cpriests\u201d are meant some heathen pontiffs or shamans because the king is not a\nChristian yet. As an excuse to the paganism of his outstanding barbarian the\nauthor mentions his lack of piety. After extolling Theodoric\u2019s wisdom at the\nreception of \u201cforeign envoys\u201d Sidonius dwells on his strength and manhood (he\ntightens in person the string of his arc) as well as on his skill in archery. At\ndinner where conversation is more important than meals the author is enchanted\nby spotless silver, well selected draperies, moderation in drinking, attentive\nservice and discipline. As the highest praise Sidonius finds at Theodoric\u2019s\ntable \u201celegance of Greece, good cheer of Gaul and Italian nimbleness\u201d. Even\nwhen playing \u201cthe board-game\u201d the Gothic king demonstrates attention, good\nhumor, patience, persistence and \u201cgood fellowship\u201d. According to Sidonius this\ngentle barbarian \u201cis afraid of being feared\u201d by his partners. Theodoric is so\nsimple and good natured that to obtain favors from him it is sufficient to be\nbeaten by him in game. The king\u2019s evening is wisely devoted to \u201cthe burden of\ngovernment\u201d and finishes with quiet, virtuous supper devoid of noisy\ndistractions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            What\nan idyllic picture! What a wonderful barbarian ruler without a single physical\nflaw featuring an impeccable way of life!  Obviously, this description of handsome,\nstrong, manly, wise, good-natured, gentle, well-bred and civilized Theodoric II\nis too good to be true. Every serious historian should ask himself why Sidonius\nexalts to the sky this Gothic king, what is his goal? To whom the author tries\nto sell his favorite? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Everything\nbecomes clear when we read in the introduction that Sidonius\u2019s father-in-law\nAvitus was Roman emperor at the time when this letter was written and what is\nmore important that he came to power thanks to support of  Theodoric II. In such a way, the missive\naddressed to the Emperor\u2019s son Agricola was intended for circulation among\nRoman elite in order to convince them that Avitus chose a perfect trustworthy ally.\nEulogizing Theodoric, Sidonius takes care to refute all negative features\nusually attributed by Romans to uncivilized barbarian rulers. Indeed, the\nauthor did his best to justify and promote Avitus\u2019s pro-Visigoth policy.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bibliography:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1-  Paul, Halsall, ed., The<\/em> Internet<\/em> Medieval<\/em> Sourcebook<\/em>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttp:\/\/www.fordham.edu\/halsall\/source\/sidonius1.html.\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sidonius Appolinaris The letter written by Sidonius Appolinaris to his brother-in-law Agricola represents an enthusiastic panegyric to the Visigoth king Theodoric II. The real meaning of this document remains unclear without careful analysis of its contents on the one hand and without additional information about its author, its addressee and the conditions of its creation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Sidonius-Appolinaris.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9td7q-3v","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions\/219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}