Season 2, Episode 9: Rutilius Namatiuanus, ‘On His Return’, and Paulinus of Pella, ‘Thanksgiving’

The second season of Overmorrow’s Library is dedicated to world-building, world-ending, and travel across worlds. Federico Campagna presents a new selection of books that might help us to appreciate the fragility of ‘worlds’, and the art of creating new ones through a particular use of our imagination. This episode is a journey through hell and heaven, set in the tumultuous 5^th century AD. The sublime melancholy of Rutilius Namatianus’ Pagan poetry and the Christian autobiography of Paulinus of Pella will take us across the threshold of two entirely different worlds existing alongside each other.

Image credit: Porphyry column decorated with group of two embracing older Tetrarchs. Rome. 293-305.