CAESARIUS'S ARRIVAL IN ARLES

When he arrived in Arles, Caesarius made contact with members of the city's secular and ecclesiastical elite. The most important of these local nobles was Bishop Aeonius, Caesarius's relative and fellow citizen (vita 1.10). It is difficult to believe, as the authors of the vita suggest, that neither man was aware of his relationship to the other before their first meeting in Arles. Caesarius's biographers are likely to have endorsed this fiction in order to enhance the drama of his arrival in the city, to suppress the suggestion that he went to Arles to exploit his kinship with its bishop, and in general to de-emphasize the importance of his remaining ties with relatives he was supposed to have left behind in the “world.” Indeed, their entire account of Caesarius's career in Arles before 502 (vita 1.8–14) is dominated by an effort to create the impression that despite his re-entry into the world he remained a monk faithful to the customs of Lérins (vita 1.11).

Besides Aeonius, Caesarius was introduced to members of the lay aristocracy in Arles, two of whom are explicitly named in the vita: Firminus, a vir illustris, and his relation (proxima), perhaps his wife, the illustrissima Gregoria (vita 1.8). Nothing is known of Gregoria, but Firminus's aristocratic connections are well known. He was a correspondent of Sidonius Apollinaris, a friend of Sidonius's son Apollinaris, and a relative and correspondent of Magnus Felix Ennodius. He may also have been related to Caesarius's biographer of the same name.