Philological and Historical Commentary on Ammianus Marcellinus XXVIII

401 Pages·2011·2.73 MB·English

by  J. den Boeft

Philological and Historical Commentary on
Ammianus Marcellinus XXVIII

Philological and Historical
Commentary on Ammianus
Marcellinus XXVIII
By
J. den Boeft, J.W. Drijvers,
D. den Hengst, and H.C. Teitler
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2011
Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaper.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
PhilologicalandhistoricalcommentaryonAmmianusMarcellinusXXVIII/byJ.denBoeft
...[etal.].
p.cm.
Spinetitle:AmmianusMarcellinusXXVIII
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-90-04-21599-3(hardcover:acid-freepaper)
1.AmmianusMarcellinus.Rerumgestarumlibri.Liber28.2.Rome–History–Empire,
284-476–Historiography.I.Boeft,J.den.II.Title:AmmianusMarcellinusXXVIII.
PA6205.P4762012
937'.08–dc23
2011035135
ISBN9789004215993
Copyright2011byKoninklijkeBrillNV,Leiden,TheNetherlands.
KoninklijkeBrillNVincorporatestheimprintsBrill,GlobalOriental,HoteiPublishing,
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CONTENTS
Preface .............................................................. vii
Introduction ........................................................ ix
Chronology ......................................................... xv
Legenda ............................................................. xxxi
Map.................................................................. xxxv
CommentaryonChapter......................................... 1
CommentaryonChapter......................................... 117
CommentaryonChapter......................................... 147
CommentaryonChapter......................................... 165
CommentaryonChapter......................................... 231
CommentaryonChapter......................................... 253
Bibliography ........................................................ 303
Indices............................................................... 329

PREFACE
Book, thethirdof thepost-Julianic hexad, is the mostRoman book
of the Res Gestae. Deplorable events in Rome take up half of its pages.
Theauthorvoiceshisexasperationaboutthesituationintheeternalcity.
Intheabsenceofothersourcesitishard,ifnotimpossible,toassessthe
reliabilityofhisreport.
Military actions in Gaul and Britannia were successful and showed
that Roman power was not yet at an end. However, the information
about these actions lacks precision with regard to chronological and
geographical details. In anumber ofcaseswe can only offera plausible
reconstructiontoourreaders.Comparableproblemsoccurinthereport
onbarbarianraidsintheprovinceofTripolitania,whichcanberegarded
asapreludetothelongdescriptionofFirmus’revoltinBook.
We would like to thank our friends and colleagues for their advice,
Ines van de Wetering for her correction of our English, the staff of the
Fondation Hardt at Vandoeuvres (CH), where we completed the final
version of our commentary in June , for their hospitality; we are
alsogratefultothepublishinghouseKoninklijkeBrillfortheprofessional
handlingofourmanuscript.
J.denBoeft
J.W.Drijvers
D.denHengst
H.C.Teitler

INTRODUCTION
InchapterofBookAmmianusrelateshowtheRomanEmpirewas
divided between the two Augusti, Valentinian and Valens. This poses a
problem for his historical report: important actions in West and East
couldtakeplaceunoeodemquetempore(§).Inordertoavoidwriting
a chaotic report ‘by leaps and hops’ (saltuatim), the author has chosen
anotherstrategy,viz.todealwiththeeventsinseparatelargerunits.He
does not refer to the specific sections on events in Rome, in which the
termsofofficeofthevariousurbanprefectsarebrieflydescribed,possibly
becausehisreaderswereusedtothesereports.ThecontentsofBook
itselfproved,however,tobelesssuitedtotheauthor’shistoriographical
strategy,inthatProcopius’usurpationtookthelion’sshareoftheavailable
space. In Book  the planned structure is more clearly visible, which
resultsinasatisfactoryandbalancedcomposition.
Evenasuperficialglanceatthecontentsofthepresentbookshowsa
drasticchangeinproportions.Almostpercentofthecontentsistaken
upwitheventsinRome,includingaconcisereportontheactivitiesoftwo
urbanprefects.Bookisthemost‘Roman’bookoftheResGestae.What
remainsisalmostentirelydevotedtocampaignsinValentinian’s partof
thedividedEmpire.Infact,onlythefinalfoursectionsofchapterbriefly
reportwhathappenedprocul,viz.inSyria,whichbelongedtothedomain
of Valens, who never appears in the book, as opposed to Valentinian,
whose active and indeed successful presence in Gaul is described in
chaptersand.
The very lengthy chapter —it takes up a third of the entire book—
containsthegreaterpartoftheRomansections,butchapter,theother
Roman chapter, alsoexceeds theusual length. Morestriking in view of
the overall structure of Book  are the remarkable opening words of
chapter : diu multumque a negotiis digressus urbanis, adigente cumulo
forisgestorum,adeastrictimexsequendaregrediar,‘Itisalongtimesince
IdealtwitheventsinthecityofRome.Thiswascausedbyagreatmany
actions in other parts of the world. I shall now return to Rome for a
concise account of Roman affairs’. This is an amazing statement. There
are only two comparatively short chapters on foris gesta between the
extensivefirstchapterandchapter,whichdoesnottallyatallwithdiu
multumqueanegotiisdigressusurbanis.However,thisphrasewouldmake