Where the Romans came, saw and conquered, they usually stayed a very long time. The first thirteen of his thirty-one books are lost; the remainder describe a period of only twenty-five years (A.D. 354-378) and the reigns of the emperors Constantis, Julian, Jovian, Valentinian and Valens, for which he is a prime authority. Critics, pointing to the turgid, sometimes obscure style of his prose, speculate why he chose to write in Latin and not in his native Greek. The legend of Maximilian of Tebessa, an early conscientious objector indicates that the number of Christian troops was not insignificant around 295. He was a pagan and an admirer of the apostate Julian, to whose career about half the surviving books are devoted. On the one hand, he was almost obsessive in his concern for truth. On the other hand, his work does suggest that he was prudent in writing what he did write, for example, his portrait of the condemned Gallus is very dark whereas a more balance picture would also have indicated his talents as a military commander, his popularity with the troops and proletariat. On the other hand, he was too kind to the memory of his own general, Ursicinus.[17] He was, though, interested in moral issues and did not hesitate to comment on what he saw as peoples failing, including the greed of the judges and advocates who played a dominant part in the ubiquitous oppressions of the regime.[18] Noblemen who lacked culture and spent their time building water organs and other musical instruments of ludicrous size.[19]. ConstantineI dissolved the praetorians and formalized the distinction between the border troops, or limitanei, and the field army troops, or comitatenses. Maximus withdrew to Hispania and Constantius captured Constantine at Arles. Located at the intersection of overland routes connecting the empire's eastern and western part, these provinces were a principal venue of military operations and recruitment. The Later Roman Empire chronicles a period of twenty-five years during Marcellinus' own lifetime, covering the reigns of Constantius, Julian, Jovian, Valentinian I, and Valens, and providing eyewitness accounts of significant military events including the Battle of Strasbourg and . [note 1] Emperors typically intervened in local affairs on the initiative of individuals or municipalities who wanted of take advantage of their intercession. Download This eBook. A comprehensive study which introduces the reader to the vigour and variety of the fourth century AD. During previous years of drought, the exceptional ecological conditions of the fertile Nile valley had helped the Roman authorities to overcome famine in other regions, but the floods of the Nile were abnormally weak from 244 to 248. Church hierarchy followed the patterns of state administration: the bishops of the provincial capitals, known as metropolitan bishops, became the superior of other bishops in the province. [138] He ordered the removal of the relics of a popular local saint Babylas from a former temple of Apollo. Ammianus Marcellinus "has a claim to be the finest Latin historian of any period", according to historian Stephen Mitchell, . The Code of Justinian expands the Code of Theodosius with rulings issued by emperors between 437 and 529. Book 25 describes Julians death in 363. Publication date 1935 Topics Rome -- History Empire, 284-476 Publisher London W. Heinemann Collection robarts; toronto Digitizing sponsor Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Contributor Robarts - University of Toronto Language English Volume 1. . Delphi's Ancient Classics series provides eReaders with the wisdom of the Classical world, with both English translations and the . Soldiers primarily worshipped Mithras or Jupiter Dolichenus and primarily eastern merchants frequented the temple of Serapis at Leptis Magna. Ammianus eventually 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), 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. Pagan cults were mainly centered around major temples and public festivals were their important elements. Civil wars could ruin the defense system, talented barbarian chieftains could launch successful invasions deep into the empire, and catastrophic events could cause mass migrations towards the borderlands. Only pagan practices that the Christians regarded especially immoral or offensive were banned under his rule. Theodosius appointed the Alan general Ardabur and Ardabur's son Aspar to lead troops against John, while John sent a junior court officer Flavius Aetius to the Huns to recruit mercenaries. [165], Theological debates about the relationship between God the Father and Christ created a further schism. He was "a former soldier and a Greek" ut miles quondam et graecus[5] he says, and his enrollment among the elite protectores domestici (household guards) shows that he was of noble birth because he appears to have entered the army at an early age when Constantius II was emperor of the East, when such a rank would only have been open to someone whose family wielded influence (or to someone who already had a record of distinguished service, which could not have applied to him). Cassius' words obviously reflect the Roman senators' aversion to the Severan emperors, because other written sources and archaeological evidence indicate that the empire recovered during their reign between 193 and 235. [4], With his Church History, Eusebius originated another new literary genre with the focus on Christian missionaries, church leaders, martyrs and heretics. [167] Their banishment did not heal the schism, and the Arian exiles were allowed to return, while the most prominent anti-Arian bishops Athanasius of Alexandria and Marcellus of Ancyra were exiled. Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Roman historian and his work the "Res Gestae", known in English as "The Later Roman Empire", is one of the most important historical accounts to have survived from ancient Rome. 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. [188] Their asceticism and dualism were particularly attractive to young intellectuals, among them Augustine who adhered to their faith before his conversion to Christianity around 382. [3] In contrast with classical literature, Hagiographic works regularly presented women as leading characters. St Jerome, in particular, accused them of cannibalism. This first church history was revised and resumed by Rufinus in 402. Although the rules changed time to time, slaves, men less than 1.65 metres (5.4 feet), heretics and urban magistrates were excluded from military service. 390 and covering in the surviving books the years AD 353 to 378 and the emperors Constantius II, Julian, Jovian, Valentinian I, and Valens. Galerius recognized Constantine as the new Caesar in return for Constantine's consent to the appointment of Valerius as Augustus in the west. Inscriptions hailed Julian as "restorer of liberty and the Roman religion". The later Roman Empire (A.D. 354-378) by Ammianus Marcellinus; Hamilton, Walter, 1908-Publication date 1986 Topics Ancient Rome, 354-378 Valens sought military assistance from Gratian but engaged the Goths and their allies at Adrianople without waiting for the arrival of western reinforcements. They were called scholae palatinae. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1972. Taking advantage of a conflict between Felix and the military commander of Roman Africa Bonifatius, Aetius staged a coup and had Felix murdered. [149], Still in 591 Pope Gregory I wrote of Sardinian pagans who had bribed the island's governor to tolerate their activities. Each diocese was ruled by a vicarius who reported to one of the two praetorian prefects. Ammianus Marcellinus, ca. By hiring foreign troops, Stilicho had lost the native officers' confidence and he was murdered by plotters in Ravenna in August. Some of their followers lived a solitary life, others assembled at least once a week for a communal meal or prayer. [33], The mid-3rdcentury saw a period of cooling and drought, well documented in many regions. 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. [20][21], Looking back from the early 3rdcentury, the Roman historian Cassius Dio concluded that the Roman Empire had descended "from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust" after Emperor Marcus Aurelius' death in 180AD. [102][103] To counterbalance Aetius' power, Galla Placidia recalled Bonifatius from Africa and made him the supreme commander of the Western Roman army. Regarding themselves as the apostles' successors, the bishops of Rome, Alexandria and Antioch claimed the right to guide all Christians. The surviving eighteen books cover the period from 353 to 378. 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. As almost all provinces were split into two under Diocletian, the early-4th-century Laterculus Veronensis already listed almost 100provinces. Ammianus Marcellinus was the last great Roman historian, and his writings rank alongside those of Livy and Tacitus. Part of the field army was organized into regional units each under the command of a magister militum. [157] Constantine made lavish donations to the Christian church, including 10.5tons of silver, 2,335pounds of gold and 34,255gold solidi according to a list preserved in the Liber Pontificalis. 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. As Valentinian was only four, Gratian became the sole ruler of their father's part of the empire. Emperors Julian and Valens were killed in action, demonstrating that the personal command of the army could put the emperor's life at risk. [172][173], Julian allowed the bishops who had been exiled during ConstantiusII's reign to return to their original position, allegedly because he wanted to create instability in the Christian church. The Visigoths left Italy and joined the coalition supporting Jovinus in Gaul, but after Honorius promised grain supplies to them, Athaulf captured and beheaded Jovinus. andrea@archive.org The systematic study of archaeological evidence intensified after the dating system of Late Roman pottery stabilized. Books 21, 22, 23, and 24 all cover Julians reign, including his campaign against the Persians. | ISBN 9780140444063 [35] Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, after whom the plague is named, attributed the calamities to the "old age of the world", but the pagans blamed the Christians' reluctance to worship the ancient gods. Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Roman historian and his work the "Res Gestae", known in English as "The Later Roman Empire", is one of the most important historical accounts to have survived from ancient Rome. [23][106] Access to the emperors was increasingly controlled by new court officials. ISBN links support NWE through referral fees. Tuy c s thng nht trong gii hc gi rng . [159], Christianity, as historian Peter Heather underlines, was "in some senses a democratizing and equalizing force". [31][32] As the continuous payment of soldiery could be secured only by the regular debasement of the Roman silver coins, the denarii, inflation became uncontrollable. [133] The regulated way of life of Egyptian priestly communities and their enthusiasm for scientific studies arrested the attention of some pagan philosophers from the 3rdcentury. The emperors were accompanied by elite troops, including 10cohorts of praetorians and a cavalry unit known as equites singulares. [190], Around 368, a provincial governor and three imperial envoys were executed on charges of, An offspring of a traditional senatorial family could typically serve as. In the west, the new tribal confederations of the Franks, Alemanni, Sarmatians and Goths made regular incursions deep into Roman territory. Roman citizens could approach the emperor directly for seeking his opinion on specific points of law. Alexandria tsunami which devastated the metropolis and the shores of the eastern Mediterranean on 21 July of that year. He exempted the Christian clergy from all public duties and taxes and legitimized pious donations to the church. Ammianus Marcellinus was the last great Roman historian, and his writings rank alongside those of Livy and Tacitus. Ammianus was solidly prejudiced against the Persians, whom he considered the hereditary enemies of the Roman Empire. [60], Constantius persuaded the Armenian king Arshak II to accept Roman protection, but he mainly refrained from offensive actions against Persia. Empress Justina was unable to convince the powerful bishop of Milan, Ambrose, to make available a church to the Gothic guards of his son, ValentinianII in the early 380s. Be the first one to, Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation by John C. Rolfe, Advanced embedding details, examples, and help, Terms of Service (last updated 12/31/2014). He died fighting the Persians on 26June 363. [114], The Roman Empire was divided into about 50provinces in the 260s. Although collective ovations for dignitaries were still regularly commemorated in public places, in this period they were made mainly in honor of imperial officials instead of local leaders as it had been common in the previous centuries. It is a major source of information on the Roman world of the fourth century and one of the few sources on Roman Britain during this period. The history, in 31 books, covered the years from A.D. 96 to 378; only Books XIV-XXXI, covering the . Search the history of over 778 billion 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 . 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