Epistles as a Medium of Late Ancient Literary Debates

The aim of the paper is to show the fundamental role that the epistles played in late ancient literary life and intellectual exchange. The main source for this phenomenon are nine books of the letters of Sidonius Apollinaris (430-486), an important representative of 5th c. Gallic high culture, who was at the same time an important Roman politician and the Catholic church hierarch. In the present paper I am concentrating on the sources showing an image of Roman literary culture (still rich and strong at that time) in Northern and Central Gaul, the territories specially endangered by barbaric incursions. The state of affairs in these areas is less known, because the scholarly efforts concentrate on studying the refined intellectual and literary culture of Southern Gaul with its great city centers in Lyon, Narbonne, Bordeaux and Vienne. The examples presented here are, obviously, just a small selection of the great number of sources presented by Sidonius.