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Ammianus Marcellinus (325/330-after 391) was a fourth-century Roman historian [1][2]. Events By Place Roman Empire Gladiatorial combat is outlawed in the Roman Empire Events By Place Roman Empire May 11 — Constantine I refounds Byzantium, renames it New Rome Events By Place Roman Empire All non- Christian temples in the Empire are closed as Theodosius establishes Christianity Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC His is the last major historical account of the late Roman empire which survives today: his work chronicled the history of Rome from 96 to 378, although only the sections covering the period 353 - 378 are extant. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial [3]

Contents

Biography

He was born between 325 and 330 to an educated family of Greek descent[4][5][6][7][3], probably at Antioch (the probability hinges on whether he was the recipient of a surviving letter to a Marcellinus from a contemporary, Libanius - Matthews 1989: 8). Events By Place Roman Empire Gladiatorial combat is outlawed in the Roman Empire Events By Place Roman Empire May 11 — Constantine I refounds Byzantium, renames it New Rome The Greeks ( Greek: Έλληνες) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions Antioch on the Orontes (Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Δάφνῃ Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου or Ἀντιόχεια ἡ Μεγάλη Antiochia ad Orontem also The date of his death is unknown, but he must have lived until 391, as he mentions Aurelius Victor as the city prefect for that year. Events By Place Roman Empire All non- Christian temples in the Empire are closed as Theodosius establishes Christianity Sextus Aurelius Victor (ca 320-ca 390 was an historian and politician of the Roman Empire. Prefect (from the Latin praefectus, perfect participle of praeficere: "make in front" i The surviving books of his valuable history cover the years 353 to 378; the work is sometimes referred to by a Latin title as Res Gestae. Events By Place Roman Empire Battle of Mons Seleucus: Constantius II defeats the usurper Magnentius. Events By Place Roman Empire Mid- February - The Lentienses cross the frozen Rhine invading the Roman Empire. Ammianus served as a soldier in the army of Constantius II in Gaul and Persia. Flavius Iulius Constantius, known in English as Constantius II ( 7 August, 317 - November 3, 361) was a Roman Emperor The Persian Empire was a series of Iranian empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland and beyond in Western Asia

He was "a former soldier and a Greek" ut miles quondam et graecus (Amm. The Greeks ( Greek: Έλληνες) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions 31. 16. 9) he tells us, and his enrollment among the elite protectores domestici (household guards) shows that he was of noble birth. He entered the army at an early age, when Constantius II was emperor of the East, and was sent to serve under Ursicinus, governor of Nisibis in Mesopotamia, and magister militum. Flavius Iulius Constantius, known in English as Constantius II ( 7 August, 317 - November 3, 361) was a Roman Emperor Ursicinus was the "master of cavalry" ( Magister equitum) in the Eastern Roman Empire c Nusaybin ancient Nisibis, Nisibia Nisibin is a city in Mardin Province, southeastern Turkey populated by Turks, Aramean-Syriacs Mesopotamia was one of three provinces (besides Armenia and Assyria) created by the Roman emperor Trajan in AD 116

He returned to Italy with Ursicinus, when he was recalled by Constantius, and accompanied him on the expedition against Silvanus the Frank, who had been forced by the allegedly unjust accusations of his enemies into proclaiming himself emperor in Gaul. Claudius Silvanus (died 7 September 355) was a Roman general of Frankish descent usurper in Gaul against Emperor Gaul (Gallia was the Roman name for the region of Western Europe comprising present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western With Ursicinus he went twice to the East, and barely escaped with his life from Amida (modern Diyarbakır), when it was taken by the Sassanid king Shapur II. Diyarbakır (دیاربکر Diyâr-i Bekr 'land of the Bekr ' (from Persian) Kurdish Amed Zazaki language Dêrbekir Syriac Shapur II was the ninth King of the Sassanid Empire from 309 to 379 When Ursicinus lost his office and the favour of Constantius, Ammianus seems to have shared his downfall; but under Julian, Constantius's successor, he regained his position. Flavius Claudius Julianus, known also as Julian or Julian the Apostate (331 or 332 to 26 June 363) was Roman Emperor (Caesar He accompanied this emperor, for whom he expresses enthusiastic admiration, in his campaigns against the Alamanni and the Sassanids; after the death of Julian, he took part in the retreat of Jovian as far as Antioch, where he was residing when the conspiracy of Theodorus (371) was discovered and cruelly put down. The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Main river ( Germany The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Dynasty or Sassanian Dynasty (ساسانیان) is the name used for the third Iranian dynasty and the second Persian empire For other meanings see Jovian (disambiguation. Flavius Iovianus, Anglicized to Jovian, ( 331 - 17 February

Work

Eventually he settled in Rome during the early eighties of the fourth century, where, in his fifties (calculating his age to be coeval to Julian, who was born in 331 - cf. Syme 1968: 216), he wrote (in Latin) a history of the Roman empire from the accession of Nerva (96) to the death of Valens at the Battle of Adrianople (378), thus forming a possible continuation of the work of Tacitus. Marcus Cocceius Nerva was also the name of a Roman emperor NERVA is an acronym for Nuclear Engine for Rocket The second Battle of Adrianople ( August 9 378) sometimes known as the Battle of Hadrianopolis, was fought between a Roman army led by the Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (ca 56 &ndash ca 117 was a senator and a Historian of the Roman Empire. This history (Res Gestae Libri XXXI) was originally in thirty-one books, but the first thirteen are lost. (Barnes argues that the original was actually thirty-six books, meaning that nineteen books have been lost. ) The surviving eighteen books cover the period from 353 to 378. Events By Place Roman Empire Battle of Mons Seleucus: Constantius II defeats the usurper Magnentius. As a whole it has been considered extremely valuable, being a clear, comprehensive and, according to Gibbon, impartial account of events by a contemporary. Recent studies have, however, shown the rhetoric power in his histories. Rhetoric has had many definitions no simple definition can do it justice Like many ancient historians, Ammianus had a strong political and religious agenda to pursue, and he contrasted Constantius II with Julian to the former's constant disadvantage. Flavius Iulius Constantius, known in English as Constantius II ( 7 August, 317 - November 3, 361) was a Roman Emperor

Edward Gibbon judged Ammianus as "an accurate and faithful guide, who composed the history of his own times without indulging the prejudices and passions which usually affect the mind of a contemporary" (Gibbon 26. Edward Gibbon ( April 27, 1737 January 16, 1794) was an English historian and Member of Parliament. 5). Ammianus was a pagan, and some have said that he marginalises Christianity repeatedly in his account. Paganism (from Latin paganus, meaning "country dweller rustic" is a word used to refer to various religions and religious beliefs from across the world Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings Some maintain that his style is harsh, often pompous and extremely obscure, occasionally even journalistic in tone, due the author's foreign origin and his military life and training. On the other hand, some authors admire him as writer. Ernst Stein goes as far as praising Ammianus as "the greatest literary genius that the world produced between Tacitus and Dante". [8]

Further, the work being intended for public recitation, some rhetorical embellishment was necessary, even at the cost of simplicity. It is a striking fact that Ammianus, though a professional soldier, gives excellent pictures of social and economic problems, and in his attitude to the non-Roman peoples of the empire he is far more broad-minded than writers like Livy and Tacitus; his digressions on the various countries he had visited are particularly interesting. Titus Livius (traditionally 59 BC &ndash AD 17 known as Livy in English, was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome

In his description of the Empire —the exhaustion produced by excessive taxation, the financial ruin of the middle classes, the progressive decline in the morale of the army— we find an explanation for sack of Rome by the Visigoths only twenty years after his death. The Sack of Rome occurred on August 24, 410. The city was attacked by the Visigoths, led by Alaric I. The Visigoths (Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, or Wisi were one of two main branches of the Goths, an East

Ammianus' work contains a detailed description of the 365 A.D. Alexandria tsunami which devastated the metropolis and the shores of the eastern Mediterranean on 21 July of that year. The 365 AD Crete earthquake was an undersea Earthquake that occurred at about sunrise on 21 July 365 AD in the Eastern Mediterranean, with an assumed epicentre His report describes accurately the characteristic sequence of earthquake, retreat of the sea and sudden giant wave. [9]

His work, the Res Gestae, has suffered terribly from the manuscript transmission. Aside from the loss of the first thirteen books, the remaining eighteen are in many places corrupt and lacunose. The sole surviving manuscript from which almost every other is derived is a ninth-century Carolingian text, V, produced in Fulda from an insular exemplar. The only independent textual source for Ammianus lies in M, another ninth-century Frankish codex which was, unfortunately, unbound and placed in other codices during the fifteenth century. Only six leaves of M survive; however, the printed edition of Gelenius (G) is considered to be based on M, making it an important witness to the textual tradition of the Res Gestae. See Clark, Text Tradition.

Notes

  1. ^ Robert Burton: The Anatomy of Melancholy Volume VI, Robert Burton, John Bernard Bamborough, Oxford University Press, p. 303
  2. ^ The History of Scotland, George Buchanan, James Aikman, 1827 Blackie, Fullarton, p. 31
  3. ^ a b Encyclopædia Britannica Online - Ammianus Marcellinus
  4. ^ Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Classical World, Israel Shatzman, Michael Avi-Yonah, 1975 Harper and Row, p. 37, ISBN 0060101784
  5. ^ East and West Through Fifteen Centuries: Being a General History from B. C. 44 to A. D. 1453, George Frederick Young, 1916 Longmans, Green and Co, p. 336
  6. ^ University of California Publications in Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley, 1943 University of California Press, p. 3
  7. ^ Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes, Cambridge University Press, p. lxvii
  8. ^ E. Stein, Geschichte des spätrömischen Reiches, Vienna 1928
  9. ^ Kelly, Gavin (2004): “Ammianus and the Great Tsunami”, in: The Journal of Roman Studies, Bd. 94, S. 141-167 (141)

References and further reading


External links

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