APOLLINARIS SIDONIUS. - Gaius Sollius Modestus A. S. was born in Lyon, between 430 and 433. After the usual course of studies, in which he cultivated poetry with particular passion, he married Papianilla, daughter of Avitus, formerly prefect of the Gauls, who in 455 was proclaimed emperor. A. S. accompanied him to Rome, where he delivered his panegyric on January 1, 456. After Avitus was defeated by Ricimer and died in October 456, A. S. read the panegyric of his successor Majorian. When the latter too fell, assassinated in August 461, the poet spent the period of the emperor Severus in the quiet of his estates at Avitacus. He returned to political life in 467, when, upon Anthemius's accession to the empire, he was sent to him as ambassador by Auvergne; he also delivered the panegyric of the new sovereign in Rome on January 1, 468, and in recompense was appointed prefect of Rome and then patrician. Having returned to the Gauls, he came to Arvernum (Clermont-Ferrand) and worked to repair the misdeeds of the prefect Seronatus; the grateful citizens elected him bishop, overcoming his reluctance, around 470. He had a difficult episcopate, especially because of the threats of Euric, king of the Visigoths, who coveted the possession of Auvergne, of which he took possession in 474. A. S., who was also the effective civil governor of the region, suffered imprisonment and exile; he spent his last years devoting himself to his flock, venerated by the faithful and by his brethren. He died around 489, in a church, where he had asked to be carried. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him as a saint on August 23.
The literary activity of A. S. is a typical example of that superficial education which regarded beautiful form, the product of the recherché artifices of the school, as an end in itself, without knowing how to quicken it with sincere and strong inspiration. Such a character is shown by the 24 poems that constitute his entire production prior to his episcopate. The most important are the three panegyrics of the emperors, already mentioned; there are then two epithalamia, praises of cities and villas, brief epigrams, etc. The mythological element abounds, while the Christian note is sought in vain, except in the sixteenth, addressed to Faustus, bishop of Riez. Having become bishop, he judged that he must bid farewell to poetry; the brief compositions in verse that he inserted in the collection of letters are for the most part of Christian inspiration. A. S. also devoted the most careful formal attention to the letters, published during his episcopate. In nine books, issued in various instalments, he collected 147 of them, addressed to friends; some were written solely with a view to publication. The subjects are varied: congratulations, recommendations, business, etc. The 12 letters of book VI and the first ones of book VII are directed to bishops. It does not appear that A. S. carried out the plan he announced (Ep. 9, 16) of composing hymns in praise of the Martyrs. Lost were: the Latin translation of the novel of Apollonius written by Philostratus, which A. S. declares (Ep. 8, 31) he had revised, and the contestatiunculae sent to bishop Megetius (Ep. 7, 3, 1), probably prayers for the Mass or sermons.
The writings of A. S. reveal no originality of thought nor vigour of inspiration, but they have notable historical-cultural interest, giving us information about political and church figures, but especially about rhetoricians and poets otherwise unknown, and vividly representing to us the customs of the Roman society of the Gauls and of the barbarian invaders. Among his contemporaries and near posterity they enjoyed great fortune and were widely imitated. Nevertheless it would be an injustice to A. S. to judge him only by them: while the man of letters, bound to the fashion of the time and to the school, appears to us vacuous and concerned only with external problems, the bishop is worthy to stand beside those numerous pastors of his time who showed themselves well aware of their mission, promoting, with wisdom and with strength, the good of the people in the first settling of relations between Roman society and the barbarian world.