Late Roman World and its Historians: Interpreting Ammianus Marcellinus (Routledge Classical Monographs)

235 Pages·1999·1.85 MB·English

by  Jan Wi Drijvers

THE LATE ROMAN WORLD AND ITS HISTORIAN
Interpreting Ammianus Marcellinus

THE LATE ROMAN
WORLD AND ITS
HISTORIAN
Interpreting Ammianus Marcellinus
edited by
Jan Willem Drijvers
and David Hunt

London and New York
First published 1999
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.

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© 1999 Edited by Jan Willem Drijvers and David Hunt
The right of Jan Willem Drijvers and David Hunt to be identified
as the Author of their contributions to this work has been asserted by them
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
The late Roman world and its historian: interpreting Ammianus
Marcellinus/edited by Jan Willem Drijvers and David Hunt.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-415-20271-X
1. Ammianus Marcellinus—Contributions in history of late Roman
Empire. 2. Historians—Rome—Biography. 3. Greeks—Rome—
Biography. 4. Rome—History—Empire, 284–476—Historiography.
5. Emperors—Rome—History. I. Drijvers, Jan Willem. II. Hunt,
David (Edward David), 1947–.
DG206.A4L37 1999
937′.08′092—dc21 99–18312
CIP
ISBN 0-203-02489-3 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-14522-4 (Adobe e-Reader Format)
ISBN 0-415-20271-X (Print Edition)
CONTENTS
Notes on contributors viii
Acknowledgements xi
List of abbreviations xiii
1 Introduction
DAVID HUNT AND JAN WILLEM DRIJVERS 1
PART I Ammianus, soldier and historian
2 Ammianus Marcellinus and fourth-century warfare: a protector’s
approach to historical narrative
FRANK TROMBLEY 16
3 Preparing the reader for war: Ammianus’ digression on siege
engines
DAAN DEN HENGST 27
4 The Persian invasion of 359: presentation by suppression in
Ammianus Marcellinus’ Res Gestae 18.4.1–18.6.7
JOSEPHINA LENSSEN 37
5 The outsider inside: Ammianus on the rebellion of Silvanus
DAVID HUNT 46
6 Ammianus and the eunuchs
SHAUN TOUGHER 57
PART II Images of emperors
7 Images of Constantius
MICHAEL WHITBY 68
8 Telling tales: Ammianus’ narrative of the Persian expedition of
Julian
ROWLAND SMITH 79
9 Ammianus on Jovian: history and literature
PETER HEATHER 93
10 Nec metu nec adulandi foeditate constricta: the image of
Valentinian I from Symmachus to Ammianus
MARK HUMPHRIES 104
11 Ammianus, Valentinian and the Rhine Germans
JOHN DRINKWATER 113
PART III Rome, the historian and his audience
12 Ammianus Satiricus
ROGER REES 125
13 A Persian at Rome: Ammianus and Eunapius, Frg. 68
DAVID WOODS 138
14 Some Constantinian references in Ammianus
BRIAN WARMINGTON 147
15 Templum mundi totius: Ammianus and a religious ideal of Rome
THOMAS HARRISON 158
PART IV The world beyond, Persia and Isauria
16 Ammianus Marcellinus’ image of Arsaces and early Parthian
history
JAN WILLEM DRIJVERS 171
17 Pure rites: Ammianus Marcellinus on the Magi
JAN DEN BOEFT 183
18 Visa vel lecta? Ammianus on Persia and the Persians
HANS TEITLER 191
19 Ammianus Marcellinus on Isauria
KEITH HOPWOOD 198
Select bibliography 209
Index 215

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Jan den Boeft is Professor of Latin at the Free University, Amsterdam. He is also
professor extraordinarius for Hellenistic religions at Utrecht University and editor-in-
chief of Vigiliae Christianae. He is co-author of the commentaries on Ammianus
Marcellinus Books 20–3.
Jan Willem Drijvers is Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Groningen.
He is co-author of the commentaries on Ammianus Marcellinus Books 22–3.
John Drinkwater is Professor of Roman Imperial History in the Department of
Classics at the University of Nottingham. He is editor (with H.Elton) of Fifth-Century
Gaul (1992), and is currently working on a book on Gaul from the third to the fifth
century.
Thomas Harrison is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of
History, University College London. He has written a number of articles on Greek
historiography and is the author of a forthcoming monograph entitled Divinity and
History: The Religion of Herodotus (Oxford University Press).
Peter Heather is Reader in Early Medieval History at University College London. He
has written extensively on Goths and other barbarians, and is just completing a volume
for the Liverpool Translated Texts for Historians series on the fourth-century Greek
philosopher and orator, Themistius.
Daan den Hengst is Professor of Latin at the University of Amsterdam. He is co-
author of the commentaries on Ammianus Marcellinus Books 20–3.
Keith Hopwood is Lecturer in Classics at the University of Wales, Lampeter. He has
compiled a bibliography of ancient history and has edited a volume on Organised Crime
in the Ancient World. He has contributed articles on classical, Byzantine and Ottoman
Asia Minor to classical and oriental periodicals.
Mark Humphries is Lecturer in Classics at the National University of Ireland,
Maynooth. He is the author of Communities of the Blessed: Social Environment and
Religious Change in Northern Italy, AD 200–400 (1999), and is a contributor to The
Cambridge Ancient History.
David Hunt is Senior Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at the University of
Durham. He has contributed three chapters on the late Roman empire to the new
Cambridge Ancient History, and has also written articles on the theme of Christianity in
Ammianus Marcellinus.
Josephina Lenssen (Department of Classics, University of Amsterdam) is completing
a book on narrative technique and historical credibility in Ammianus Marcellinus. She
has taught Latin at the University of Amsterdam and the Free University, Amsterdam.
Roger Rees is Lecturer in Classics at the University of Edinburgh. He has written
articles on Latin poetry and prose and is preparing a book on Tetrarchic panegyric.
Rowland Smith is Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Newcastle-upon-
Tyne. He has research interests in late Roman society and culture, and is the author of
Julian’s Gods: Philosophy and Religion in the Thought and Action of Julian the Apostate
(Routledge, 1995).
Hans Teitler is Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Utrecht. He is
co-author of the commentaries on Ammianus Marcellinus Books 20–3.
Shaun Tougher is Lecturer in Ancient History in the School of History and
Archaeology at the University of Wales, Cardiff. He has written articles on the relations
between Julian, Constantius II and the empress Eusebia, and also on eunuchs in the
Byzantine world.
Frank Trombley is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Wales,
Cardiff. He has written books and articles on late Greek paganism and Christianization,
and more recently on war and religion in late Roman and Byzantine society.
Brian Warmington was formerly Reader in Ancient History at the University of
Bristol. He is the author of several books, including The North African Provinces from
Diocletian to the Vandal Conquest, and has written a number of articles on Constantinian
topics.
Michael Whitby is Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of
Warwick. He is co-editor of Cambridge Ancient History XIV, and has published on the
Greek historiography of the later Roman empire; he is currently working on the late
Roman army.
David Woods is Lecturer in Classics at the University College of Cork, Ireland. He
has published widely on the military martyrs, the life of Constantine I, and Ammianus
Marcellinus. He is currently working on a monograph on the organization, identities and
succession of the magistri militum during the period c. 350–408.