1. Ian Wood, "Continuity or calamity?: the constraints of literary models," in Fifth-century Gaul: a crisis of identity?, eds. John Drinkwater and Hugh Elton (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 9-18.

2. For general treatments of the life of Sidonius Apollinaris, see: Samuel Dill, Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire (New York, 1958, reprinted 1960), pp. 187-223, 323-345; Andre Loyen, Sidoine Apollinaire, vol. I, Poems (Paris, 1960), pp. vii- xxix; idem, Sidoine Apollinaire et l'Esprit Precieux en Gaul aux Derniers Jours de l'Empire (Paris, 1943); J. R. Martindale, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. II, A. D. 395-527 (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 115-118; C. E. Stevens, Sidonius Apollinaris and his Age (Oxford, 1933, reprinted 1979); Raymond Van Dam, Leadership and Community in Late Antique Gaul (Berkeley, 1985), pp. 157-178.

3. For discussions of the dating of Sidonius's works, see: W. B. Anderson, Sidonius, vol. I: Poems and Letters (Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, 1936, reprinted 1980), p. lx and n. 1; J. D. Harries, "Sidonius Apollinaris, Rome and the barbarians: a climate of treason?" in Fifth-century Gaul: a crisis of identity?, p. 299; A. Loyen, Sidoine Apollinaire, vol. II, Lettres (Paris, 1960), pp. xi-xxiv, xlvi-xlix; Stevens, Sidonius, pp. 168- 74.

4. Harries, "Sidonius Apollinaris," p. 299.

5. Stevens, Sidonius, p. ix.

6. John Matthews, Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court, A. D. 364-425 (Oxford, 1975), pp. 122-23.

7. Ibid. , pp. 188-190.

8. Ibid. , pp. 307-320; C. E. V. Nixon, "Relations between Visigoths and Romans in Fifth-Century Gaul," in Fifth-century Gaul: a crisis of identity?, pp. 65-68.

9. Dill, Roman Society, p. 328.

10. Harries, "Sidonius Apollinaris," p. 301.

11. Peter Heather, "The Emergence of the Visigothic Kingdom," in Fifth-century Gaul: a crisis of identity?, p. 90; Ralph W. Mathisen, Roman Aristocrats in Barbarian Gaul. Strategies for Survival in an Age of Transition (Austin, 1993), pp. 33, 48.

12. Augustine, De civitate Dei libri XXII, 1. 1, 3. 29; Orosius, Historiarum adversum paganos libri VII, VII. 39; Salvianus of Marseille, De Gubernatione Dei, 4. 13, 16, 19.

13. Heather, "The Emergence of the Visigothic Kingdom," p. 92.

14. Dill, Roman Society, pp. 325-29; Martindale, Prosopography, vol. II, pp. 196- 198; Herwig Wolfram, History of the Goths, trans. Thomas J. Dunlap (Berkeley, 1988), pp. 178-9.

15. Sidonius, Carmen VII. 223f. , 306-14, 411f; Loyen, Recherches Historique, pp. 35-58. After the magister militum preasentalis Ricimer overthrew and subsequently murdered Avitus in 456, Sidonius continued to pursue his objective of reestablishing political stability in the West through Gallic leadership backed by barbarian arms. Beginning in late 456, Sidonius was apparently involved in the shadowy coniuratio Marcelliana, a failed attempt at Lyon to raise a certain Marcellinus to the imperial throne with the help of the Burgundians and Visigoths. When this "conspiracy" capitulated before the forces of Emperor Majorian, Sidonius was forced to deliver his second imperial panegyric, this time begging the emperor to be merciful: Sidonius, Carmen V. 575, Epistolae, I. 11. 6; Dill, Roman Society, p. 338; Stevens, Sidonius, pp. 36-52, 181-85. Sidonius' mysterious embassy to emperor Anthemius and Ricimer in Rome in 467/8 might also have been aimed at improving official relations with the new Gothic king, Euric, who succeeded Theoderic II in 466 [Sidonius, Carmen II]. Moreover, before Sidonius became a bishop, a friend of his, Arvandus, was convicted in Rome of treason for conspiring with the Gothic king: Sidonius, Epistolae I. 7; H. C. Teitler, "Un-Roman activities in late-antique Gaul: the cases of Arvandus and Seronatus," in Fifth-century Gaul: a crisis of identity?, pp. 309-14.

16. Sidonius, Epistolae I. 2. 4.

17. Stevens, Sidonius, p. 132. The one exception to this general avoidance of Christian topics is Sidonius' panegyric to Bishop Faustus of Riez, in which Sidonius embarrassingly confuses several biblical references: Carmen XVI. 18, 31.

18. For the details of the Gothic conquests, see Heather, "The Emergence of the Visigoth Kingdom," p. 86-90; A. H. M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire. 284-602, vol. 1 (Oxford, 1964, reprinted 1973), pp. 257ff. ; Loyen, Sidoine Apollinaire, vol. II, Lettres, p. xvff. ; Wolfram, History of the Goths, pp. 184-88.

19. Knut Schaferdiek, Die Kirche der Westgoten und Suewen (Berlin, 1967), pp. 18ff; Ralph W. Mathisen, Ecclesiastical Factionalism and Religious Controversy in Fifth-Century Gaul (Washington, 1989), p. 269; Stevens, Sidonius, p. 158-60, 207ff.

20. Sidonius, Epistolae VII. 5. 3, VII. 6. 7; Mathisen, Roman Aristocrats, pp. 32-33; Wolfram, History of the Goths, p. 200.

21. Sidonius, Epistolae, IV. 10. 1, VIII. 9, IX. 3. 3.

22. Jones, Later Roman Empire, vol. I, pp. 262-64; Schaferdiek, Kirche der Westgoten, p. 29.

23. Sidonius, Epistolae, VII. 9. 19-20, VI. 6. 1. See also V. 12. 2.

24. Sidonius, Epistolae, IV. 8, IV. 22, VIII. 3, VIII. 6, VIII. 9. Stevens, Sidonius, p. 92.

25. Sidonius, Epistolae, IV. 10. 2, IX. 3. 1.

26. Van Dam, Leadership, p. 172.

27. Sidonius, Epistolae VII. 9. 6.

28. Sidonius, Epistolae VII. 6. 5.

29. Sidonius, Epistolae IX. 16. 41-44. For examples of Sidonius's concern for his critics, see: Epistolae,VII. 11. 1, IX. 1. 3, IX. 2. 3, IX. 9. 5, IX. 16. 9-16. In many places Sidonius confessed the limitations of his theological knowledge; for example, Epistolae IV. 3. 1, IV. 12. 3, VI. 7. 1, IX. 2. 3.

30. Stevens, Sidonius, p. 19 and n. 3.

31. For other examples of Sidonius' confessional and penitential message, see: IV. 3. 9, VII. 9. 7, VII. 10. 2, VII. 18. 3, IX. 3. 4, IX. 8. 2, IX. 11. 4, IX. 16. 53-56.

32. In epistola VII. 12. 1,4, Sidonius refers to hoc opus as a list of pontificum nomines. This suggests that Sidonius published either book VII, or VI and VII together, as a separate work (opus).

33. Mathisen, Ecclesiastical Factionalism, pp. 247-268, esp. 251-3.

34. Sidonius, Epistolae VI. 12, VII. 3, VII. 6, VII. 14, VII. 15, VII. 17. Also see IV. 2, IV. 3, IV. 9, IV. 12, V. 14, IX. 16

35. Sidonius, Epistolae VII. 5, VII. 8-9. For the date of the election at Bourges, see Stevens, Sidonius, pp. xiii, 126-9.

36. Sidonius, Epistolae, VII. 5. 1, VII. 8. 3.

37. Sidonius, Epistolae, VII. 6. 9.

38. Sidonius, Epistolae, VII. 6, VII. 7.

39. Sidonius, Epistolae, VII. 6. 6. This letter later gave Gregory of Tours (HF 2. 25) the inspiration to invent a "grave persecution of Christians in Gaul" under Euric: Wood, "Continuity or calamity?," pp. 12-13.

40. Sidonius, Epistolae, VII. 6. 10.