Some Aspects of the «enkyklios paideia» in the Correspondence of Sidonius (Ep. IV. 3 and IX. 9)

Abstract

This paper highlights some aspects of encyclopedic knowledge («enkyklios paideia»), found in the texts of the letters of Sidonius Apollinaris, the Gallo-Roman aristocrat and bishop of the 5th century. The encyclopaedical tradition is understood not like a set of knowledge from various sciences, but as the desire to demonstrate it in one essay in order to educate a reader audience. It was originated in Ancient Greece and was picked up and developed by Varro, Pliny the Elder and Celsus in Ancient Rome. The intellectuals of Late Antiquity, who have gravitated to classical culture, also find a tendency to broadcast their comprehensive education (Martianus Capella, Boethius, Cassiodorus, Isidore of Seville), imitating, first of all, Pliny the Elder. Sidonius Apollinaris, the author of the collection of 147 letters, did not escape this «fashion». Two of his messages (Ep. IV. 3 and IX. 9), addressed to his friends and fellows in Church service, Claudianus Mamertus and Faustus of Riez were selected for the analysis. Sidonius eulogized his correspondents for their wide knowledge and compared them with the best-known sophists and orators of Ancient Greece and Rome hoping for equal answer. The author comes to the conclusion that the encyclopedic knowledge of Sidonius was superficial in nature; he was shown it just with the aim of self-presentation – representing himself as an educated person, an intellectual. «Schoolish encyclopedism» of Sidonius was used not for enlightenment, but to maintain the epistolary network, since it was manifested as part of the lauditive discourse, which suggested a similar and imminent response of the addressee.

Acknowledgements
The study was supported by the grant of the Russian Scientific Fund No. 22-28-00284 “Social networks as a mechanism of influence in the socio-political and spiritual life of the Latin West in the 4-6 centuries AD”.