From Rome to Gaul

The value of De Reditv Svo by Rutilius Namantianus as witness to the transformations of the physical anda social landscape in Late Antiquity

Abstract

The return trip to native Gaul documented in the poem De Reditu Suo by Rutilius Namatianus allowed him to witness the transformations of the physical, human and social landscape of the early 20th century. V. The speech's digressive tone accompanies the sea voyage, punctuating the visual observation with reflective commentary. In this article, we intend to follow the objective view of the rutilian discourse and analyze the reflections that the poet operates on what he sees. We also intend to make a judgment about what seems to be a rutilian enigma: being clearly a good observer, contemporary and privileged witness of remarkable events of the crisis of the beginning of the 4th century, how do you manage to maintain the belief in the conservation of the status quo that made Rome possible? Within the limits of the hodoiporetic literary genre, Rutilio's work is a case of compromised observation, conditioned by the facts that are imposed on the participant involved: his speech balances between the description of spaces and landscapes and his critical appreciation, from the cultural horizon, but also of the expectations of the Roman aristocrat, on the way to a definitive transformation of life.