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\u81es 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 \u81rst 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