Ammianus Marcellinus: Roman History, Volume I, Books 14-19

by Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus, ca. 325-ca. 395 CE, a Greek of Antioch, joined the army when still young and served under the governor Ursicinus and the emperor of the East Constantius II, and later under the emperor Julian, whom he admired and accompanied against the Alamanni and the Persians. He subsequently settled in Rome, where he wrote in Latin a history of the Roman empire in the period 96-378 CE, entitled "Rerum Gestarum Libri XXXI." Of these 31 books only 14-31 (353-378 CE) survive, a remarkably accurate and impartial record of his own times. Soldier though he was, he includes economic and social affairs. He was broadminded towards non-Romans and towards Christianity. We get from him clear indications of causes of the fall of the Roman empire. His style indicates that his prose was intended for recitation.

The Loeb Classical Library edition of Ammianus Marcellinus is in three volumes.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Reference, Classics

640 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 391

About the author

Ammianus Marcellinus (c. 330 - after 391) is the preeminent historian of the Late Roman Empire, whose extant work forms the most important narrative we possess on the Fourth Century A.D. Born of genteel extraction in a Greek-speaking part of the empire, Ammianus served in the army in campaigns ranging form Gaul to Persia before settling in Rome and beginning his literary carreer. Besides shedding light on many events from the reign of Constantius to the calamitous defeat at Adrianople - including striking portraits of emperors Julian and Valentinian - his work offers as well a compelling description of Late Roman society.

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first volume of Rolfe's three-volume edition and translation of Ammianus for the Loeb Classical Library. I read only the English, to be frank. To my knowledge, this is currently the best English translation of Ammianus out there; the Penguin often follows Rolfe and has a tendency to cut bits that I think are interesting. We await eagerly Gavin Kelly's The Landmark Ammianus!

Outside of the dated nature of the English, I was not overfond of Rolfe's use of the word savage all the time. He uses it to translate the noun barbarus as well as the adjective barbaricus besides ferus, and then translates feritas as savagery. These words are nuanced in the Latin, and I would have preferred similar nuance in the English. Furthermore, the word savage tends to conjure up in the Anglophone mind either Rousseau's 'noble savage' or patronising visions of indigenous peoples from a century ago. While Ammianus may not think much of the barbari Rome faces in his narrative, it is best to let the ancient words speak for themselves without today's colonialist overtones.

That said, Ammianus is always worth a read, in any language and any translation. While English doesn't bring out his style in full, it brings out his content and the force of events in the fourth-century Roman Empire. The text is missing its beginning sections and comes in AD 354/4 in the reign of Constantius while Gallus is Caesar. The first Loeb volume ends shortly after the Siege of Amida of 359, an event which Ammianus witnessed, with a punitive expedition by Constantius against rebellious barbari in Sarmatia. Julian is Caesar at this point.

Besides the Siege of Amida in book 19, this volume is worht reading for Ammianus' image of Julian as a great and good philosopher king who proves himself a valiant general in traditional Roman style. Here we meet his hero, who will later be the last pagan emperor of Rome. In his accounts of Julian's campaings in Gaul and across the Rhine, we also meet some interesting barbari and interesting examples of ancient ethnography.

If the fourth century AD interests you, then this book is for you. It shows the Empire at a place of strength, the frequent border skirmishes and then war with Persia notwithstanding. I doubt many in 369 would have imagined the actual, final loss of Gaul, Spain, and North Africa a century later. Ammianus can help dispel our myths about the Later Roman Empire, and that's a good thing.

[Ian Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this opening volume of the Loeb edition of Ammianus’ history of Rome in 1997 and I then went on to read the second and third volumes of what survives of Ammianus’ work. Sometime towards the end of the fourth century he wrote a history of the Roman empire from 96 to 378 CE in 31 books. Books 1 to 13 are entirely lost, a pile of dust in the crypt of some monastery, I suspect. They must have been a fairly brisk canter covering over 250 action-packed years in the history of the Roman empire because what’s left (books 14 to 31) is a very detailed account of the period from 353 to 378, ending with the Battle of Adrianople when the Goths hammered the eastern Roman army.
Unlike many historians, Ammianus was not an armchair kind of bloke. While he was preparing to write his history, he travelled to many of the places mentioned in the work and he also took an active part in some of the events that he chronicles. He was born around 325 CE in Antioch, which was then in the Roman province of Syria and is now in Turkey. He served in the army for about twenty years as an officer in an elite unit called the protectores domestici. They were something of a cross between an imperial bodyguard and today’s special forces. For a long time it was thought that he was an artillery officer as he shows a detailed knowledge of siege engines, but it’s now generally believed that his schtick was military intelligence. He also took part in special operations. Early in this volume he describes how he was part of a team sent to Cologne to assassinate a senior general, Silvanus Francus, who had declared himself emperor. It’s a tricky operation as the usurper has managed to win over his troops, but ultimately it’s a success and Silvanus’ bid to become emperor bites the dust.
Ammianus has traditionally been regarded as an impartial chronicler and interpreter of events and peoples, though recent historians have questioned this. He appears to make an effort to overcome most of his prejudices. These include a dislike of the empire’s enemies (especially Germanic peoples and the Huns), a suspicion of Christians and a marked antipathy towards eunuchs. That said, he gives a reasonably balanced ethnographic account of peoples inside and outside the empire. Interestingly, he describes the men in Gaul – after four hundred years of Roman occupation – pretty much as Julius Caesar found them: physically big, belligerent and quarrelsome. However, he goes on to say that the women are far more terrifying than the men. When a Gallic woman rolls her sleeves up, you really don’t want to mess with her.
Volume I opens at the point when the Emperor Constantius II has overcome internal rivals and established himself as sole emperor. He appoints his cousin Gallus as his deputy in the East while he focuses on dealing with invasions by Germanic tribes. Ammianus describes Gallus’ tyranny and incompetence and his subsequent recall and murder (or execution without trial, if you prefer) on Constantius’ orders.
Volume I also covers the Persian invasion of Roman territory in what is now Iraq and Turkey. Ammianus describes how he was sent to Armenia to spy on the Persian advance. He watches the Persian army marching across the desert in a very dramatic scene. He describes the chaos and fear as columns of refugees head west and the Roman soldiers destroy bridges to try to slow down the Persian advance. At one point he rescues a little boy who has lost his parents. Later he is trapped in the city of Amida (modern Diyarbakir in Turkey) which is besieged by the Persians for 73 days. He recounts some grisly episodes, including waking up one morning to find that the soldier next to him has had his head sliced in two. After escaping from Amida with two comrades, he hears a horse galloping along behind him. As it approaches he sees that it is dragging the headless body of its erstwhile rider who had obviously fallen off but was unable to free himself from the reins that he had tied around his hand. As the ranking officer Ammianus commandeers the horse for himself while his comrades have to carry on walking.
Ammianus’ great hero is Julian the Apostate and he is happy to sing his praises whenever possible. However, we’ll find in Volume II that he does not shirk from criticising Julian when the latter deserves it, including for his treatment of Christians…..
If Julian is the hero, Constantius II is definitely the villain, along with his sycophantic courtiers and the sinister agentes in rebus (secret police). These blokes always seem to pop up at a dinner party where one of the guests remarks that the purple tablecloth could be turned into an imperial cloak. The result is that within days, the host and his guests will come to a sticky end. Some of the most entertaining parts of the history are the accounts of court intrigues. Some of them make Game of Thrones look like the proverbial kindergarten. This isn’t in Ammianus’ surviving books but I’m sure he covered it: Julian was a mere six years old when he was forced to watch while his father and eldest brother were strangled on Constantius’ orders. Julian and Constantius were cousins, by the way.
Ammianus’ native tongue was Greek and he spoke Latin as a second language. Perhaps this is why his Latin is a bit of a challenge, though it must have been accessible in his day because he was often invited to give public readings of his history and by all accounts these were pretty popular. If you don’t want to engage with Ammianus’ weird Latin, the accompanying English translation is fine, although it’s getting a bit dated now (1930s). The introduction is very useful and cuts through some of the bureaucratic complexities of the imperial civil service.
I would therefore recommend the Loeb editions over any alternatives that I’ve come across.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

4th century Ammianus Marcellinus wrote about the Roman Empire of his own lifetime, so that future generations would be informed. He entered the army and began his experience of public life during the reign of Constantius II. This volume includes the earlier surviving books of his history, and ends before the end of Constantius's relatively long reign. Ammianus's loyalty is to the Roman Empire, to his early leader Ursicinus, and to Emperor Julian - not to Constantius. The accounts of neurosis and corruption in Constantius's rule make it clear why. But he is evenhanded and gives straightforward accounts of the hated emperor's victories against barbarian tribes.

This volume gives the original Latin on one page and the English translation on the opposite page. The English prose is difficult. Be prepared to read slowly.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a review of Ammianus Marcellinus in "Late Antiquity" praising him as a late Roman Empire prose stylist in the vein of Tacitus, all the more remarkable for writing in Latin when his own native language was Greek. I find late imperial history in the West difficult to follow, at times, but I must say, I do admire his clear prose, and found the sections dealing with the emperor Julian ("the Apostate") fascinating . . .

[Alex Hardin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fact that the Author was present or knew someone present at many of the events he writes of offers a much more vivid picture of the events versus a historian writing in the abstract about events that predated his own time. What you lose from biases is more than made up for in detail.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rolfe, the Loeb translator, is worse than worthless - see De Jonge and particularly Henricus Valesius (Henri Valois). Gibbons and Hobbes were both deep in Ammianus' jock - any other questions?