Sidonius Apollinaris, a 5th-century churchman and author, descended from a noble Gaulish family, who held high civil offices at Rome and in 472 became bishop of Clermont. Born about 430, he died in 483. His letters (nine books) are modelled on Pliny and other classics; his poems (twenty-four books) comprise panegyrics on three emperors and two bombastic epithalamiums.
See the Abbé Chaix, Saint Sidoine Apollinaire et son Siècle (2 vols. Clermont, 1867-68); works by Chatelain (Paris, 1875) and Kaufmann (Göttingen, 1864); Hodgkin's Italy and her Invaders (vol. ii. book iii.; 1880). There are editions of the works of Sidonius by Baret (Paris, 1879) and Lütjohann (Berlin, 1888).