News from a mundus senescens: Romans, Visigoths and Saxons in a Letter by Sidonius Apollinaris (8.6)

This paper focus on a letter by Sidonius Apollinaris dating back to 477/478 and addressed to Namatius, a Gallo-Roman aristocrat, appointed as a naval officer by the Visigothic King Euric to guard the Atlantic coast against the Saxon pirates. The cruelty of the Saxons (in their first description, as far as is known) might reflect, in an implicit way, that of the other barbarian people, the Visigoths, recognized as victor populus (8, 6, 16) but alienus (8, 2, 2), after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Due to his vertiginous feeling of the end of the world (mundus iam senescens), Sidonius stresses the importance of the Classical studies, but also suggests that Namatius alternates work with hunting (as a material manifestation of Roman aristocratic identity) and that his Latin language is not damaged by rust (robigo is a metaphor of the linguistic decadence because of the contact with the others).