Sidonius Apollinaris and Horace Ars poetica 14-23

Sidonius Apollinaris—the Latin poet, letter-writer, and bishop who was surprisingly influential from the 5th until the 15th century —twice cites the programmatic beginning of Horace’s Ars poetica. One citation casually reverses the clear meaning of Horace’s passage, the other superficially imposes unity on Sidonius’s last, multiplex book of letters. These are individual acts of reception that transform the model they invoke, with a deference that also includes objectification: cum reuerentia antiquos in Sidonius’s happy formulation (Ep. 8.11.8). The modal ablative (cum reuerentia) describes the manner in which the author approaches his models; the accusative reveals that the ancients are subject to the transitive desires of modern authors. They are objects to be acted upon and transformed. The type of intertextuality represented here is important for Sidonius and common in late antiquity, but difficult to describe with an accurate terminology.