Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus was the last of the great Roman historians. By birth a Greek by birth, he was a native of Syrian Antioch. He served in the imperial bodyguard. He saw service from Gaul to the Mesopotamian frontier. After Ammianus retired from the military, he wrote a political and military history of imperial Rome covering the period from 353 to 378, picking up where Tacitus left off and ending in his own day with the defeat and death of the emperor Valens. Of the original 31 books that made up the history, only the last 18, which concern the period between 335-378, have survived from antiquity. When Ammianus wrote his history at Rome, he was in touch with the leading senatorial literary circle around the scholar and statesman Symmachus. Much of what Ammianus wrote reflects his observations of events as a high-ranking officer. His history remains our major source for the brief and dramatic reign of Julian, whom Ammianus admired. It also continues to be a prime source for the time when the first Christian emperors were establishing their authority while defending the frontiers of the empire from new incursions. His history is written in a rhetorical style, but his accuracy and impartiality deserve praise. Ammianus shared the catholic temper of later pagan antiquity. Although not a Christian himself, he was tolerant of the new religion and admired the probity and simplicity of provincial bishops. As a Greek, he aimed to impress the senatorial aristocracy of Latin-speaking Rome, which was a characteristic of the future Byzantine orientation of the empire.