Writing to Survive. A Commentary on Sidonius Apollinaris, Letters Book 7. Volume 2: The Ascetic Letters 12-18

Asceticism, and the antidote it offers to contemporary secular

disappointments in fifth-century Gaul, is the central theme in the

second part of Book 7 of Sidonius Apollinaris’ correspondence.

Addressing a state of ferment in which the closely-knit Gallo-Roman

elite is shifting its moral and religious parameters along with its

political certainties, these letters only reveal their full significance

• this commentary claims - when read as ascetic documents mirroring the

mentality of the monks of Lerins.

This second volume of

Writing to Survive follows the first (LAHR 2) in scope and

method, providing detailed philological underpinning as well as a wealth

of thematic research. Together, these two volumes constitute an

important contribution towards the comprehensive range of commentaries

on Sidonius’ work planned by the ‘Sidonius Apollinaris for the

Twenty-First Century’ project for publication in the LAHR series.

Like its companion volume, this work will be of interest to

classicists and medievalists, to literary scholars and church

historians, to those concerned with philological and historical

intricacies and those interested in the broader development of

literature and mentalities in Late Antiquity.