Sidonius's Carm. 22: An Ecphrasis of Otium

At the center of Sidonius Apollinaris's Carm. 22 is a 100-verse ecphrasis of the castle of his patron, Pontius Leontius, in southern Gaul. As a poetical digression, the vivid description not only places the castle's architectural beauties before the reader's eyes but also reproduces the perception of timelessness characteristic of leisure (otium). Starting from a conception of otium as a chronotopos—that is, a phenomenon of space and time—I will analyze how the poet extends the use of the ecphrastic technique to achieve what could be called an "ecphrasis of otium."