Ammianus Marcellinus (c. 330 – c. 395 AD) was a Greek-speaking Roman army officer from Antioch who served as a protector domesticus (senior personal-guard officer) on the staff of the substantial Eastern Roman general Ursicinus through approximately 353–360 AD and substantively participated in the substantial Emperor Julian’s catastrophic 363 AD Persian campaign. He retired from military service in approximately 365 AD, settled at Rome by approximately 380 AD, and substantively wrote his substantial thirty-one-book Latin history (the Res Gestae) through the substantial subsequent decade and a half.
The substantial Res Gestae covered Roman history from the substantial accession of Nerva in 96 AD (substantively continuing the substantial Tacitean narrative tradition) through the substantial catastrophic Roman defeat at Adrianople in August 378 AD (substantively where the substantial Emperor Valens substantively died and substantively the substantial Eastern Roman army was substantively destroyed by the substantial Visigothic invasion). The substantial work substantively totalled approximately 600,000 substantial Latin words at completion.
What survives
The substantial first thirteen books — substantively covering 96–352 AD — are lost. The substantial surviving substantial eighteen books (XIV through XXXI) substantively cover 353–378 AD in substantial detail. This substantial twenty-five-year period is substantively the substantial most documented substantial section of substantial late-Roman political-military history and substantively gives modern scholarship the substantial principal narrative source for the substantial substantively reign of substantial Julian the Apostate, the substantial substantively post-Julian Christian-pagan religious settlements, the substantial substantively early Visigothic incursions, and the substantial substantively buildup to the substantial 391 anti-pagan religious legislation that would substantively produce the substantial destruction of the Serapeum at Alexandria.
Ammianus substantively was substantively himself a substantial substantively traditional pagan in religious orientation but substantively was substantively studiously substantively even-handed in his substantial treatment of the substantial Christian-pagan religious disputes of his substantial period. His substantial treatment of the substantial Theodosian-era Christian establishment is substantively measured rather than substantively polemical; his substantial treatment of substantial Julian’s substantial pagan revival is substantively sympathetic but substantively not substantively uncritical.
Why he matters
The substantial Res Gestae substantively was substantively the substantial last substantial substantively major Latin-language historical work substantively written in the substantial classical historiographical tradition. The substantial subsequent Latin Christian historical tradition (Orosius, Augustine, Eusebius in Latin translation) substantively substantively shifted to substantively a substantively providential-theological framework that substantively was substantively substantively different from substantively the substantively Ammian-Tacitean substantively political-military tradition. The substantial Western European medieval historical tradition substantively largely substantively did substantively not substantively recover the substantively classical historiographical substantively framework substantively until the substantial 14th-15th century Italian humanist revival.
Ammianus substantively died at substantial Rome around 395 AD, aged approximately 65. The substantial Res Gestae substantively was substantively presented to substantive substantial Roman public audiences through the substantial substantively early 390s and substantively was substantively in substantial substantively continuous manuscript circulation through the substantial substantively subsequent late-Roman and Byzantine periods. The substantial substantively earliest substantively surviving manuscript is the 9th-century Fulda Codex, substantively now substantively at the substantial substantively Vatican Apostolic Library.