L'inizio della fine: l'epistola IX 1 di Sidonio Apollinare tra amicitia ed istanze estetico-letterarie

This paper provides a through analysis of the epistle IX 1 of Sidonius Apollinar- is. The letter, which introduces the last book of the collection, is heavily programmatic: devot- ing this last stage of the opus to the young Firmino, Sidonius identies in the reciprocity the basis of mutual correspondence. Furthermore he indicates once again his own models, which he had expressly declared in the epist. I 1: Pliny and Symmachus. To the rst one Sidonius referred explicitly, the latter is echoed through the resumption of a metaphor and his cultural model is probably resumed in the closing of the epistle.