La voce di Enotria e la solitudine di Ricimero

Among the figures introduced by Sidonius in the second half of the panegyric of Anthemius there is Oenotria, traditionally interpreted as a personification of Italy. This identification, in general correct, can be enriched with further nuance: the image of the goddess reflects a tendency to enhance the Appenine dimension of Roman Italy, an ancestral dimension recalling the origins of the conflict with Carthage that the empire is once again called to face. The hero of this new Punic war will be a man from the East, Anthemius, come to re-establish the correct balance in the central Mediterranean, once that Ricimer’s management of Roman external policy had not given satisfactory results