¹ Kaster, R.A., C. Suetonius Tranquillus: De Grammaticis et Rhetoribus. Edited with a Translation, Introduction and Commentary (Oxford, 1995)Google Scholar.

² For the use of utraque lingua to denote knowledge of Greek and Latin literature, see, among others, Hor. Carm. 3.8.5, Sat. 1.10.23–4; Cic. Arch.; Ov. Ars. am. 2.122; Quint. Inst. 1 Pr. 1, 1.1.14; Plin. Ep. 8.25.4, 3.1.7, 7.25.4; Gell. NA 17.5.3, 9.15.2; Mart. 10.76.6; August. De ciu. D. 8.12; Tert. Aduersus Praxean 3; Amm. Marc. 18.5.1. See also Plin. Ep. 7.9.1–2 to Fuscus, in which he advises how to study at his villa and translate between Latin and Greek, and Ep. 9.36.3 to Fuscus, in which he describes his own daily routine of reading a Greek or Latin oration aloud.

³ Quint. Inst. 1.1.12–14. He also provides a suggested reading list of the Greek authors, including Homer, Demosthenes, non-dramatic poets, and authors of comedy, tragedy, history, oratory and philosophy (Inst. 10.1.39, 10.1.46–84, 10.1.105–6). We get another example of the sorts of texts taught by Greek grammarians in the West from Statius, whose father (Papinius Statius) was a teacher near Naples. He taught Homer, Hesiod, Sappho, Alcman, Corinna, Stesichorus, Pindar, Ibycus, Callimachus and Lycophron (Stat. Silu. 5.3.146–8). On this topic, see McNelis, C., ‘Greek grammarians and Roman society during the Early Empire: Statius’ father and his contemporaries’, ClAnt 21 (2002), 67–94Google Scholar. Papinius Statius’ curriculum may betray his own interests and options of someone who lived in a traditionally Greek-speaking area and may not necessarily be representative of all classical schools. Cf. Ciccolella, F., Graeci, Donati: Learning Greek in the Renaissance (Leiden, 2008), 126–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁴ Apul. Flor. 18.15–16; Apol. 30.11, 87.4.

⁵ E.g. Aerts, W., ‘The knowledge of Greek in western Europe at the time of Theophano and the Greek grammar fragment in MS. Vindobonensis 114’, in van Aalst, V. and Ciggaar, K. (edd.), Byzantium and the Low Countries in the Tenth Century. Aspects of Art and History in the Ottonian Era (Hernen, 1985), 78–103Google Scholar; Berschin, W. (transl. Frakes, J.), Greek Letters and the Latin Middle Ages (Washington, 1988)Google Scholar; Ciccolella (n. 3); Herren, M. and Brown, S. (edd.), The Sacred Nectar of the Greeks: The Study of Greek in the West in the Early Middle Ages (London, 1988)Google Scholar; Herren, M., ‘Pelasgian fountains: learning Greek in the Early Middle Ages’, in Archibald, E., Brockliss, W. and Gnoza, J. (edd.), Learning Latin and Greek from Antiquity to the Present (Cambridge, 2015), 65–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kaczynski, B., Greek in the Carolingian Age: The St. Gall Manuscripts (Cambridge, MA, 1988)Google Scholar.

⁶ Dickey, E., Learning Latin the Ancient Way: Latin Textbooks from the Ancient World (Cambridge, 2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dickey, E., ‘Teaching Latin to Greek speakers in antiquity’, in Archibald, E., Brockliss, W. and Gnoza, J. (edd.), Learning Latin and Greek from Antiquity to the Present (Cambridge, 2015), 30–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Millar, F., A Greek Roman Empire: Power and Belief under Theodosius II (408/450) (Berkeley, 2006)Google Scholar; Adams, J.N., Bilingualism and the Latin Language (Cambridge, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁷ Cf. Marrou, H. (transl. Lamb, G.), A History of Education in Antiquity (New York, 1956), 354Google Scholar: ‘In the West, Greek was gradually dying out’; Riché, P. (transl. Contreni, J.), Education and Culture in the Barbarian West (Columbia, SC, 1976), 44Google Scholar: ‘There were simply not enough people who could read Greek or who were even interested in the translations produced during this period.’ Haarhoff, T., Schools of Gaul: A Study of Pagan and Christian Education in the Last Century of the Western Empire (London, 1920), 224Google Scholar argues that, although Ausonius and Paulinus of Pella mentioned Greek education in the schools of fourth-century Gaul, we cannot assume that this instruction indicates ‘thoroughness or efficiency’. Riché, P., ‘Le Grec dans les centres de culture d'Occident’, in Herren, M. and Brown, S. (edd.), The Sacred Nectar of the Greeks: The Study of Greek in the West in the Early Middle Ages (London, 1988), 143–68Google Scholar, at 145 blames the shock of the barbarian invasions, saying that, while the schools closed, some aristocrats continued to learn Greek at home; cf. Jones, A., The Later Roman Empire 284–602: A Social, Economic, and Administrative Survey, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1964), 2.987Google Scholar: ‘In the fifth century boys in aristocratic homes still learnt Greek … It may be doubted, however, whether Greek continued to form part of the regular curriculum taught in the schools’. See also Gualandri, I., ‘Quid erat causae cur Graecas litteras oderam? Il greco in Occidente tra IV e V secolo d.C.’, in Modelli di un multiculturalismo giuridico: il bilinguismo nel mondo antico: diritto, prassi, insegnamento (Naples, 2013), 675–701Google Scholar, for the place of Greek in the West, though she focusses almost exclusively on the fourth century in Italy, and emphasizes mainly the use of Greek for access to Christian texts.

⁸ Courcelle, P. (transl. Wedeck, H.), Late Latin Writers and their Greek Sources (Cambridge, MA, 1969), 224–70Google Scholar. In the first edition of his work (1943) Courcelle linked this so-called renaissance in Gaul to the fact that the Easterner Anthemius had been made emperor in the West, but tempered this assertion in the second edition (1948), after much scepticism from his readers. The translation by Wedeck in 1969 is of the second edition of Courcelle's book.

⁹ For Ausonius’ Greek, see Green, R., ‘Greek in Late Roman Gaul: the evidence of Ausonius’, in Craik, E. (ed.), Owls to Athens: Essays on Classical Subjects Presented to Sir Kenneth Dover (Oxford, 1990), 311–19Google Scholar; Goldlust, B., ‘Le statut de la culture grecque dans la poétique d'Ausone’, Latomus 69 (2010), 129–49Google Scholar. The text of Ausonius follows Green, R.P.H., The Works of Ausonius: Edited with an Introduction and Commentary (Oxford, 1991)Google Scholar. Translations of Ausonius are from Evelyn-White, H., Ausonius with an English Translation, 2 vols. (Cambridge, MA, 1919 and 1921)Google Scholar.

¹⁰ At Prof. Burd. 8.13–16, where Ausonius celebrates his childhood Greek teachers, he says that he struggled with the language (obstitit nostrae quia, credo, mentis | tardior sensus neque disciplinis | adpulit Graecis puerilis aeui | noxius error). Augustine also confessed difficulty learning Greek as a boy, and he disliked the language and the way in which it was taught (August. Conf. 1.13.20–3).

¹¹ For Ausonius’ epigrams, see Kay, N.M., Ausonius Epigrams: Text with Introduction and Commentary (London, 2001)Google Scholar.

¹² Greek phrases are regularly used for each of the sage's ‘sayings’; e.g. Delphis Solonem scripsisse fama est Atticum | γνῶθι σεαυτόν, quod Latinum est: nosce te (Ludus 52–3). Cf. Ludus 56–90 (passim), 138, 149, 156, 180, 189, 203, 215.

¹³ E.g. the opening of the letter: ῾Ελλαδικῆς μέτοχον μούσης Latiaeque Camenae | ἄξιον Αὐσόνιος sermone adludo bilingui (Ep. 6.1–2).

¹⁴ Ausonius’ own Greek compositions would provide further opportunities for contemporary and later audiences to interact with Greek. For example, Onorato, M., ‘Un ospite per Apollo: intertesualità interna e codice ausoniano nella metatoria pagina di Sidonio a Lampridio’, BStudLat 48 (2018), 492–523Google Scholar, at 517–20 argues that Sidonius draws on Ausonius’ bilingual letter to Paulus in his own composition for his friend, the teacher Lampridius (Sid. Apoll. Epist. 8.11.1–55). It is natural that the litterati of fifth-century Bordeaux (and beyond) would be intimately familiar with Ausonius’ work, especially those in the teaching profession, such as Lampridius. For Lampridius’ teaching career, cf. Sid. Apoll. Epist. 8.9, 8.11, 9.13; Carm. 9.311–15.

¹⁵ F. Racine, ‘Servius’ Greek lessons’, in P. Archibald, W. Brockliss and J. Gnoza (edd.), Learning Latin and Greek from Antiquity to the Present (Cambridge, 2015), 52–64.

¹⁶ The best account for this is Goold, G., ‘Servius and the Helen episode’, HSPh 74 (1970), 101–68Google Scholar. Also see Kaster, R.A., Guardians of Language: The Grammarian and Society in Late Antiquity (Berkeley, 1988), 169–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fowler, D., ‘The Virgil commentary of Servius’, in Martindale, C. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Virgil (Cambridge, 1997), 73–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁷ For how Servius’ commentary on Virgil could be used in late antique classrooms, see Foster, F., ‘Teaching language through Virgil in Late Antiquity’, CQ 67 (2017), 270–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁸ Racine (n. 15), 54: ‘Serv. A. 1.196. TRINACRIO – Graecum est propter tria ἄκρα, id est promunturia, Lilybaeum, Pachynum, Pelorum. Latine autem Triquetra dicitur. (DS: sane Philostephanus περὶ τῶν νήσων sine r littera Trinaciam appellat ὅτι Τρίνακος αὐτῆς πρῶτος ἐβασίλευσεν)’.

¹⁹ Cf. Dickey, E., The Colloquia of the Hermeneumata Pseudodositheana II: Colloquia Harleianum, Montepessulanum, and Celtis (Cambridge, 2015), 141–266CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dionisotti, A.C., ‘From Ausonius' schooldays? A schoolbook and its relatives’, JRS 72 (1982), 83–125Google Scholar. The location in Gaul is based on inclusions and exclusions from the curriculum and on linguistic features. The descriptions of urban life suggest a time during the later Empire in a provincial centre that is not Rome. Certain vocabulary about food and clothing places the location in a cold climate, probably north of the Alps, and the mention of a certain grain, bracem, strongly suggests Gaul. Dickey (this note), 159 clarifies that the bilingual colloquium was probably in existence earlier, but that in late antique Gaul someone added an epilogue and edited or fixed parts that had been damaged or lost.

²⁰ It is possible that there are three schools described, but the last school is probably part of the first scene, and the secondary-school section somehow got inserted into the middle of it. Cf. Dionisotti (n. 19), 120–1; Dickey (n. 19), 207.

²¹ ἄπ<ε>ιμι ἔξω πρὸς ἀκροατήριον ψηφιστοῦ (σημ<ε>ιογράφου, Ἕλληνος, Ῥωμαίου, ῥήτορος). | eo foras ad auditorium calculatoris (notarii, Graeci, Latini, oratoris).

²² … πρὸς Ἕλληνα (Ἑλληνικὸν) καὶ πρὸς Ῥωμαϊκὸν (Ῥωμαῖον) | … ad Graecum <(Graecum)> et ad grammaticum <(grammaticum)> (29). εἰσῆλθον εἰς σχολὴν Ἕλληνος καὶ εἰς ἀκροατήριον Ῥωμαίου | intrauimus scholam Graeci et auditorium grammatici (30a).

²³ The text does not mention Menander by name but reads τρεῖς κωμῳδίας | tres comoedias. Since Terence is already named and is separated from the Greek authors in the list by Sallust, it is possible that this refers to Menander rather than to Plautus. Menander was a standard school text in the West. Cf. Dickey (n. 19), 224.

²⁴ Cf. Dickey (n. 19), 224, who points out that many chreiai were not about Diogenes, and that the other texts in the list were long works, whereas chreiai were short and were mostly used as things to draw from and change in different school exercises. The reading list from 37a–38c, however, is overall quite uneven, so it is possible that such handbooks of philosophical sayings are precisely what is meant here.

²⁵ Dionisotti (n. 19), 113 and Dickey (n. 19), 223 doubt that it could be Caesar, since he was not a traditional school text, but in the sixth century Parthenius introduced the young Arator to the works of both Caesar and Sidonius (Arator, Ep. ad Parthen. 33–48), which may indicate that these works were sometimes read in such contexts.

²⁶ Both Thucydides and Xenophon are mentioned by Quintilian as useful for learning history, and he reports that Cicero saw them as useful for this purpose as well (Inst. 10.1.33); Quintilian also mentions Theocritus (Inst. 10.1.55). Hippocrates is mentioned by Sidonius in an educational context (Sid. Apoll. Epist. 9.14.2), but this is possibly a rhetorical flourish rather than a report of an actual school text, as discussed below. It would be odd, though, if Homer, a standard school text, was read as a paraphrase or summary, but less common authors were read in full or in the original.

²⁷ Cf. Dickey (n. 19), 221–4 and Dionisotti (n. 19), 120–2 for the peculiarities of the reading list.

²⁸ For the use of Greek in Sicily in Late Antiquity, see Korhonen, K., ‘Sicily in the Roman Imperial period: language and society’, in Tribulato, O. (ed.), Language and Linguistic Contact in Ancient Sicily (Cambridge, 2012), 326–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar; De Angelis, A., ‘Greek in Sicily in Late Antiquity’, in Giannakis, G. and Bubeník, V. (edd.), Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics (Leiden, 2014), 94–101Google Scholar.

²⁹ This is similar to Augustine's professed distaste for learning Greek (August. Conf. 1.13.20–3).

³⁰ The Protrepticus, naturally, was intended for an audience much broader than just one small child, who at the time of its composition would have been too young to read it. The Protrepticus, and the message in it, would have circulated among Ausonius’ fellow Gallo-Roman aristocrats, and Ausonius’ summary of Latin and Greek education would have been familiar to these readers.

³¹ Though Paulinus was born in the East, he was in Bordeaux by the time he was three years old, when Ausonius held the consulship (i.e. 379); therefore, all of his formal education took place in Gaul (cf. Paul. Pell. Euch. 34–49).

³² Text and translation adapted from Evelyn-White, H., Paulinus Pellaeus: Eucharisticus (Cambridge, MA, 1921)Google Scholar.

³³ dogmata Socratus would suggest Plato, but it could also mean a handbook of philosophy or sayings of philosophers.

³⁴ Cf. n. 2.

³⁵ Kaster (n. 16), 455–62.

³⁶ Booth, A., ‘The academic career of Ausonius’, Phoenix 36 (1982), 329–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Green, R., ‘Still waters run deep. A new study of the Professores of Bordeaux’, CQ 35 (1985), 491–506CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

³⁷ This dating is based on Ausonius’ letter to Ursulus (Ep. 10), in which he discusses the emperor's New Year's gifts. The date of the letter is 376, when Ausonius was quaestor to the Emperor Gratian in Trier.

³⁸ Mommsen, T. and Meyer, P. (edd.), Codex Theodosianus (Berlin, 1905)Google Scholar; Pharr, C., Pharr, M. and Davidson, T. (edd.), The Theodosian Code and Novels, and the Sirmondian Constitutions (Princeton, 2001)Google Scholar. Examples of pessimistic interpretations of this phrase include: Green (n. 9 [1991]), 624: ‘Greek teachers were in short supply at Trier (C. Th. 13.3.11)’; Green (n. 36), 494: ‘it is clear that a Greek grammaticus could not always be found at Trier’; Sivan, H., ‘Ausone et la légalislation impériale: l'exemple de CTh 13.3.11’, REA 3–4 (1989), 47–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 52: ‘L'espoir futile de trouver un professeur de grec digne d'occuper la chaire de grammaire dans la ville renvoie à la situation des études de cette langue en Gaule vers la fin du IVe siècle.’

³⁹ It was uncommon for professors’ salaries to be paid by the state. Most teachers relied mainly on students’ tuition fees and sometimes also drew municipal salaries. The emperors tended to pay salaries in special circumstances and in cities that were important to them or to the state (i.e. Rome, Constantinople and, in this case, Trier and its diocese, which was at that time the location of the imperial residence).

⁴⁰ Bonner, S., ‘The edict of Gratian on the remuneration of teachers’, AJPh 86 (1965), 113–37Google Scholar, at 135.

⁴¹ Cf. Kaster, R.A., ‘A reconsideration of Gratian's school-law’, Hermes 112 (1984), 100–14Google Scholar, at 114.

⁴² As we have seen above, Kaster's study (n. 41) of the grammarians of Bordeaux suggests that students learned Greek to a less advanced level in Bordeaux. As this paper shows, interest in Greek persisted in Gaul in this period, at least at the elementary level. Since there was still active teaching of Greek throughout Gaul, funded by the imperial government in the North, we should not assume that there was an overall shortage of qualified Greek grammarians in Trier or elsewhere in Gaul, but rather that the demand for Greek and the use of it within Roman education and literary culture had changed by this period.

⁴³ This second letter is preserved in only one place—in a manuscript of the De statu animae from the thirteenth century, which is housed in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (MS Paris, lat. 2165) and available to view online at: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b100385810/f20.image.r=2165.

⁴⁴ Engelbrecht, A., Claudiani Mamerti Opera (CSEL 11) (Vienna, 1885), 203–6Google Scholar. Translations are my own. I have amended the text from acsi to ac si, after this point was brought to my attention by the CQ editor, Bruce Gibson. References to Claudianus’ works in the remainder of this article will be made according to page numbers in Engelbrecht's edition.

⁴⁵ disciplinarum omnium atque artium magistra Graecia idcirco maxime nobilibus studiis prouecta est atque orbem paene totum multiplicibus complexa doctrina, Claud. Mam. Ep. ad Sapaud. 203.

⁴⁶ Cf. Sid. Apoll. Epist. 2.10.1, 3.3.3, 4.17.2, 5.5.3, 5.10.4, 8.2, 8.5.3; Carm. 12.1–11. A century later, Gregory of Tours opened his History of the Franks with a similar regret (Hist. praef. 1): decedente atque immo potius pereunte ab urbibus Gallicanis liberalium cultura litterarum, cum nonnullae res gererentur uel rectae uel inprobae.

⁴⁷ grammaticam uti quandam barbaram barbarismi et soloecismi pugno et calce propelli, dialecticen tamquam Amazonem stricto decertaturam gladio formidari, rhetoricam ac si grandem dominam in angusto non recipi, musicen uero et geometricam atque arithmeticam tres quasi furias despui, posthinc philosophiam [atque] uti quoddam ominosum bestiale numerari, Claud. Mam. Ep. ad Sapaud. 204. Claudianus’ personification of the liberal arts resembles that of Martianus Capella, though Claudianus includes philosophy instead of astronomy.

⁴⁸ penes Galliam nostram professionis tuae par unus et solus es, Claud. Mam. Ep. ad Sapaud. 205.

⁴⁹ Pelttari, A., ‘The rhetor Sapaudus and conflicting literary models in Sidonius Apollinaris and Claudianus Mamertus’, in Di Stefano, A. and Onorato, M. (edd.), Lo specchio del modello. Orizzonti intertestuali e Fortleben di Sidonio Apollinare (Naples, 2020), 191–210Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ See e.g. Hom. Il. 1.249; Sedulius, Carm. Pasch. praef. 13–14.

⁵¹ Cic. Diu. 1.36: at Platoni cum in cunis paruulo dormienti apes in labellis consedissent, responsum est singulari illum suauitate orationis fore. ita futura eloquentia prouisa in infante est.

⁵² Macrob. Sat. praef. 5–6; Sen. Ep. 84.3–7.

⁵³ E.g. Plin. HN 19.168; Scribonius Largus, passim; Hor. Ars P. 375; Verg. Ecl. 7.41, 9.30.

⁵⁴ On Hyblaean honey, see Clausen, W., A Commentary on Virgil Eclogues (Oxford, 1994), 52Google Scholar (on Verg. Ecl. 1.54). Strabo commented on the good quality of Mt Hybla's honey (Strabo 6.2.2), and Varro also considered it the best (Varro, Rust. 3.16.14). Mt Hybla's honey was a popular theme in Latin poetry, from Virgil (Ecl. 1.54, 7.37) to Late Antiquity: Ov. Ars am. 2.517, 3.150, Tr. 5.6.38, 13.22, Pont. 2.7.26, 4.15.10; Luc. 9.291; Stat. Silu. 2.1.47–8, 3.2.117–18; Mart. 2.46.1–2, 5.39.3, 7.88.8, 9.26.4, 11.42, 13.104, 13.105.1; Sil. Pun. 14.23–30, 14.192–200; Claud. De raptu Proserpinae 2.125.

⁵⁵ Servius may have been led astray by some curious references to Mt Hybla in Statius, such as Achil. 1.553–9: conclamant Danai stimulatque Agamemno uolentes. | laxantur coetus resolutaque murmure laeto | agmina discedunt, quales iam nocte propinqua | e pastu referuntur aues, uel in antra reuerti | melle nouo grauidas mitis uidet Hybla cateruas. | nec mora, iam dextras Ithacesia carbasus auras | poscit, et in remis hilaris sedere iuuentus. Serv. In Vergilii Bucolicon librum 1.54: hyblaeis Hybla, quae postea Megara, oppidum Siciliae: uel locus in Attica, ubi optimum mel nascitur. depasta florem depastum florem habens. salicti uirgulti genus, eo quod salit et surgit cito. hic uocat rusticum ad dulcia, quae sunt in rebus, quibus delectatur.

⁵⁶ The Greek grammarian Citarius, for example, moved to Bordeaux from Sicily in the mid fourth century (Auson. Prof. Burd. 13). Cf. n. 28.

⁵⁷ Pelttari (n. 49).

⁵⁸ Sid. Apoll. Epist. 4.3.1, 4.3.6, 4.3.7.

⁵⁹ Sid. Apoll. Epist. 4.3.6–7, 4.11.6.4–5.

⁶⁰ Courcelle (n. 8), 238–58.

⁶¹ Brittain, C., ‘No place for a Platonist soul in fifth-century Gaul? The case of Claudianus Mamertus’, in Mathisen, R. and Shanzer, D. (edd.), Society and Culture in Late Antique Gaul: Revisiting the Sources (Aldershot, 2001), 239–62Google Scholar, at 245.

⁶² On Sidonius’ use and knowledge of Greek, see Gualandri (n. 7); Courcelle (n. 8), 251–62; Cameron, Alan, The Last Pagans of Rome (Oxford, 2011), 546–54Google Scholar; Condorelli, S., ‘Improvisation and poetical programme in Sidonius, Ep. 9.13’, in Van Waarden, J. and Kelly, G. (edd.), New Approaches to Sidonius Apollinaris (Leuven, 2013), 111–32Google Scholar, at 129–30. Also cf. Shanzer, D. and Wood, I. (edd.), Avitus of Vienne. Letters and Selected Prose (Liverpool, 2002), 62CrossRefGoogle Scholar, who, in describing the similarities between the letter collections of Sidonius and Pliny, say that ‘almost all of Sidonius’ Greek words come from Pliny’.

⁶³ Although these are the only individuals explicitly linked with proficient Greek knowledge, we may infer through indirect evidence that others too were at least interested in Greek culture. For example, as noted above, Onorato (n. 14) suggests that Sidonius interacts with Ausonius’ ‘macaronic’ poem to Paulus in his own poem to the Bordeaux teacher Lampridius. This indicates that both Sidonius and Lampridius would have been able to appreciate Ausonius’ wordplay and use of Greek forms. Others among Sidonius’ correspondents are also praised for their poetic virtuosity in Latin, including Petrus (Sid. Apoll. Epist. 9.13, 9.15.39–43, Carm. 9.307–8), Paulus (Sid. Apoll. Epist. 1.9), Leo (Sid. Apoll. Epist. 9.13.20), Domnulus and Severianus (Sid. Apoll. Epist. 9.13.3). Given the fact that Greek mythology and culture had always been foundational to Latin literature, it is plausible that these Gallo-Romans who had literary ambitions would also have had an interest in Greek culture, and perhaps more than a passing knowledge of Greek language and literature. At the same time, we should not automatically assume that all fifth-century Gallo-Romans with literary ambitions knew Greek.

⁶⁴ Other instances where Sidonius appeals to Greek authorities or authors in his praise of friends occur mainly in his lists of philosophical figures, which—while they could very well signal a knowledge of Greek itself (since much philosophical writing, including late antique Neoplatonic texts, was in Greek)—might also be a way to indicate familiarity with philosophical ideas. An example is Sidonius’ praise of Faustus (Epist. 9.9.14–15) or his list in his panegyric to Anthemius (Carm. 2.156–92).

⁶⁵ This article would not have existed without the help of many colleagues. I would like to thank Gavin Kelly, Lucy Grig, Aaron Pelttari, Calum Maciver, Sigrid Mratschek, Roger Rees and Zubin Mistry, who offered guidance and suggestions at various stages of the writing process. My argument was further sharpened from feedback at the CA conference in Edinburgh and the ISLALS conference in Bryn Mawr/Haverford. This article took its final shape as a result of valuable comments from the anonymous reviewers and the editor Bruce Gibson. I must also thank the University of Edinburgh, the DAAD, the SSHRC and the Leverhulme Trust for supporting the research for this article. Any remaining mistakes are my own.