Introduction

Summary

Sidonius writes to Serranus that Marcellinus has shown him Serranus’ letter about the emperor, Petronius Maximus. Sidonius criticises Serranus’ very positive portrayal of Petronius Maximus and doubts that he was happy. In a comparison with the Roman general Sulla, who also claimed for himself the epithet felix, Sidonius shows that the greatest power does not mean the greatest happiness. In sections 3–5 Sidonius reviews the career of Petronius Maximus, which came to an ominous end. In sections 6–8 Sidonius analyses the lives of great men in power using the historical example of Damocles, who lived at the court of Dionysius I, a ruler of Syracuse in the fourth century bc. Being an obsequious courtier, Damocles praised his ruler as the happiest man on earth. To show him the negative aspects of power, Dionysius forced his admirer to enjoy a luxurious meal while a sword was hanging above his head, held up only by a horsehair. Damocles, paralysed by fear, was unable to enjoy the luxury and greatly relieved to be released back into his ordinary life.

Addressee

The addressee, Serranus, is otherwise unknown; PLRE 2, 996, PCBE 4, 1736, Kaufmann (1995) 347–8, Mathisen (2020a) 121.

Date

The terminus post quem for Ep. 2.13 is the death of the emperor Majorian in 461; see the commentary on Ep. 2.13.3 Hic si omittamus…. On the general difficulty of dating Sidonius’ letters, see the Introduction, ‘2. The date and order of letters in Book 2’.

Major themes and further reading

Structure

In the penultimate letter of his book on otium, Sidonius deals with the dangers of negotium. The letter, which Edward Gibbon praised for its elegant composition (van Waarden 2020c, 699), is a warning against the vicissitudes of politics and thus refers back to the closing letter of Book 1, Ep. 1.11, which shows Sidonius in the role of a politician. Ep. 2.13 belongs to the genre of reporting letters, since Sidonius gives a detailed account of the downfall of Petronius Maximus; Cain (2009) 212. Fernández López (1994) 170–7 treats Ep. 2.13 under ‘suasoria y controversia’. Through the theme of human happiness treated here there is also a connection to Ep. 2.3, which is dedicated to Felix; see the introduction to Ep. 2.3. Together with Ep. 2.2, 2.9 and 2.10, Ep. 2.13 is one of the longer letters of the second book.