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. [152] Exorcism was an important component of Christianity in Late Antiquity. [99] When Honorius died in August 423, his courtiers proclaimed one of their number John emperor, but Theodosius acknowledged Galla Placidia's six-year-old son by Constantius, Valentinian III as Honorius' lawful successor. The Later Roman Empire (AD 354-378) This book is the Penguin Classics translation of the Res Gestae by Ammianus Marcellinus, the most important primary source for the fourth century in the Roman Empire. The Christians were outlawed for their alleged opposition to traditional Roman values, but they were only sporadically persecuted. 1999. Mint coins that depicted himself, dio, and max as equal rulers of the empire Never had official acknowledgement from the other 2 emperors to share power Tetrarchy (293 CE) Diocletian Aug. East Galerius Caesar Maximian Aug. West -> northern Italy Constantius Chlorus Caesar -> up in the northern part Inspired by the danger imposed by . 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. Reinforced by fresh troops from the Danubian provinces, Galerius defeated Narseh in Armenia and sacked the Persian capital Ctesiphon. He was aware that appearing to be too critical, or too sympathetic, towards named people might attract censure. A comprehensive study which introduces the reader to the vigour and variety of the fourth century AD. In concern with Galerius, he outlawed Christianity in 303, initiating the Christians' last systematic persecution in the empire. The Code of Theodosius contains about 2,500 entries and covers the period between 335 and 437. From these references, it has been deduced that he was born probably between 325 and 330 to an educated family of Greek descent, possibly in Antioch[3] This probability hinges on whether he was the recipient of a surviving letter to a Marcellinus from a contemporary, Libanius. After Justinian forbade their religious practices, tens of thousands of Samaritans fled to the Sassanian Empire. He was not, however, a narrow-minded pagan and subscribed to the view that there really was no need for a sharp dichotomy between pagan and Christian beliefs. He believed in a divine power that manifested itself through the various deities.[30] He was full of praise for Valentinian Is policy of religious tolerance and while generally very positive on Julian, he thought he went too far in his anti-Christian measures, it was a harsh law that forbade Christian rhetoricians and grammarians to teach unless they consented to worship the pagan Gods.[31] Grant suggests that on the one hand what he wrote in praise of Julian would have displeased Christians, while when he criticized Julian he would have alienated pagans, who idolized him. [77] Anti-Gothic sentiments endured in Constantinople: Fravitta was executed and the Gothic military commanders were replaced by Armenians, Persians and Isaurians. [148][146], The end of neoplatonism occurred during the reign of JustinianI. [120] As a sign of the growing importance of Christianity, Constantine authorized the bishops to make judgement in civil cases between Christian litigants. Maternus Cynegius, the christian praetorian prefect of the East, was accused of allowing the destruction of pagan temples by fanatic mobs, but some recent authors, however, have questioned his role in events and his overall reputation as a christian fanatic and temple destroyer. The praetorian prefects were the highest-ranking military, financial and judicial officials, and the appointment of the vicarii eased their administrative burdens. His writings are an indispensable basis for our knowledge of the late Roman world Member of. Gavin Kelly's Ammianus Marcellinus: The Allusive Historian is a thought-provoking and original study of a key fourth-century author. Individuals regularly approached sorcerers or applied magical practices to secure the support of unearthly powers although magical practices were outlawed. andrea@archive.org 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. 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. Around 531 he banned all who had not received the orthodox/nicean baptism from teaching and serving in state administration. RomeHistoryEmpire, 284-476Historiography. They were mainly staying along the borders and their absence from Rome gave rise to the development of new imperial centers, including Nicomedia, Serdica, Thessalonica and Trier, each provided with a palace, a hippodrome and warehouses. Please try again later. ), Encyclopaedia Iranica I/9 . The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus During the Reigns of the Emperors Constantius, Julian, Jovianus, Valentinian, and Valens . Peace was restored when Narseh acknowledged the Romans' suzerainty over Armenia and the neighboring Caucasian Iberia, and surrendered some border provinces in 299. In 317, Licinius had to surrender Illyricum to Constantine. [87] The usurper ConstantineIII could not prevent the Vandals, Alans and Suebi from crossing the Pyrenees into Hispania. [115] The maintenance of two separate hierarchies of equestrian and senatorial offices became obsolete by the end of the 3rdcentury. Seven years later, Constantine routed Licinius at Chrysopolis and enforced his abdication. They were often chosen from among the eunuchs who were always at the emperor's mercy, and were often unpopular. [63] He appointed his cousin Gallus to rule the eastern provinces as Caesar, but Gallus' despotic measures caused massive discontent. Julian's relative Procopius challenged Valens' claim to rule, but Valens routed him in Lydia in 366. This example Ammianus Marcellinus Essay is published for educational and informational purposes only. His work chronicled the history of Rome from 96 to 378, although only the sections covering the period 353-378 are extant. [75] Theodosius' death is traditionally regarded as a decisive moment in the separation of the empire's eastern and western halves. [32] He admired the Christian martyrs and some provincial bishops for their moderation but criticized others for wasting money. 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. Examples include the Life of Macrina about a wealthy and pious aristocrat Macrina the Younger. Ammianus . Introduction The life of Ammianus Our knowledge of Ammianus is derived almost wholly from his own writings. Arcadius' confidant, the eunuch Eutropius assumed power in Constantinople, but Gainas achieved his deposition after a rebellion of the Phrygian Gothic troops in 399. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1972. 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 . Born in Hispania, he had rejected Arianism. Both breakaway states were destroyed by Emperor Aurelian in the 270s. [112], After the Christianization of the empire the Senatus no more rewarded deceased emperors with a divine status, but the emperors were regarded as God's representatives on Earth. Aside from the loss of the first thirteen books, the remaining eighteen are in many places corrupt with sections missing. The diarchythe rule of two co-emperorsresulted in the informal division of the empire: Diocletian mostly ruled in the east (including Illyricum and Egypt), and Maximian in the west. . He says as a gentleman (ingenuus) he had to get used to all the walking required of him in the military. He led the Vandals and Alans across the Strait of Gibraltar into northern Africa. 2004 Delphi Complete Works of . 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). N c l tng l ngn ng chnh ti cc vng Dacia, Moesia v ln cn. In 335, he made his nephew Dalmatius the fourth Caesar and awarded Dalmatius' half-brother Hannibalianus with the traditional Persian royal title "King of Kings". Portraying a time of rapid and dramatic change, Marcellinus describes an Empire exhausted by excessive taxation, corruption, the financial ruin of the middle classes and the progressive decline in the morale of the army. [149], Still in 591 Pope Gregory I wrote of Sardinian pagans who had bribed the island's governor to tolerate their activities. The construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and other pilgrim churches in Jerusalem and Bethlehem started during his rule. Reportedly, he sacrificed so many animals while making preparations for his Persian campaign that people worried about a shortage of cattle. [154] Lactantius blames the haruspicespagan priests practicing divinationfor arousing Diocletian's anger against the Christians, and Galerius and his fanatically pagan mother for convincing him to take drastic measures. His is the last major historical account of the late Roman Empire which survives today. [29], Ammianus was a pagan, and some have said that he marginalizes Christianity repeatedly in his account. One of their candidates to emperorship ConstantineIII consolidated his position and crossed the Channel into Gaul where he recruited new troops from among the invaders. While classical culture claimed that only the wealthy could live a truly civilized life, hagiographies praised uneducated ascetics who abandoned civilisation for the desert. [105], Diocletian introduced the official ritual of adoratio, ordering that his subjects were to kneel before him and kiss the corner of his robe. 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. Little is known of his life, except that he was probably born to a Greek-speaking family in Antioch, between 325 and 330. He was born between 325-330 AD most likely at Antioch. ConstantineI dissolved the praetorians and formalized the distinction between the border troops, or limitanei, and the field army troops, or comitatenses. Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. The lis t corroborates Ammianus Marcellinus ' com- plaints about conflicting imperial edicts found in his discussion of the late Roman advocate, the ' most violen t and rapacio us type of men . Summary. With more than 1,700titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. [73] Theodosius restored Valentinian as emperor in the west, but put him under the guardianship of a Frankish military commander Arbogast. of Constantius, Julian, Jovian, Valentinian I, and Valens, and providing eyewitness accounts of significant military events including the Battle of Strasbourg and the Goth's Revolt. Jovian adopted a moderate approach and only repeated bans on magical practices. Book 14 (the earliest to survive) starts from 353 (the sixteenth year of Constantius IIs reign) and ends with Deputy emperor Gallus' execution for misgovernment in 354. While the date of his death is unknown, he lived very near to the end of the 4th century AD. [187] Manichaeism was a dualistic religion: its adherents distinguished a good and an evil god, and blamed the evil god for the creation of the material world. Interpreting Ammianus Marcellinus . Official meetings began with acclamations in their honor emphasizing the divinely sanctioned nature of their rule. The Christian God replaced the pagan gods in official documents and ceremonies, but few rich Christians renounced their wealth as Biblical stories proposed it. Version 1. [168] On his death bed, Constantine received baptism from an Arian bishop, Eusebius of Nicomedia. [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 was at times very detailed in his descriptions of events but at other times he expressed reluctance to get caught up in what he called insignificant details, such as what one emperor said at table, or left out the reasons why the common soldiers were led before the standards for punishment.[20] This was perhaps related to his awareness that proximity to events provided on the one hand an opportunity to draw on personal observation, and to include autobiographical content while on the other he could offend powerful people by omission as well as by inclusion. The Goths under his rule, now known as Visigoths, elected his brother-in-law Athaulf his successor. Alexandria tsunami which devastated the metropolis and the shores of the eastern Mediterranean on 21 July of that year. 1968. Ammianus Marcellinus was the last great Roman historian, and his writings rank alongside those of Livy and Tacitus. Julian had concealed his pagan Neoplatonic sympathies, but after his ascension he openly renounced Christianity. His Buildings provides a list of the achievements of Justinian's building program, but archaeological evidence sometimes contradicts it. Ammianus Marcellinus (325/330 - after 391) was a fourth century Roman historian. Syme, Ronald. He choose his younger brother Valens, entrusting him with the administration of the eastern half of the empire. Local Jewish communities accepted the leadership of their rabbis. Ammianus was born of a noble Greek family and served in the army of Constantius II in Gaul and Persia under the general Ursicinus, who was dismissed after he allowed the Persians to capture the city of . 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 . The ascetic Jerome was the spiritual instructor of a circle of wealthy Roman women, including Paula and her daughter Blaesilla. [4], With his Church History, Eusebius originated another new literary genre with the focus on Christian missionaries, church leaders, martyrs and heretics. Ammianus Marcellinus, (born c. 330, Antioch, Syria [now Antakya, Tur. [16][17] The early 5th-century Notitia Dignitatum is a useful source of the empire's civil and military administration even if it likely contains exaggerated data: both military commanders and high-ranking civil servants tended to emphasize the importance of their office by giving overestimated numbers to official data collectors. New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article 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 . Ammianus Marcellinus was the last great Roman historian, and his writings rank alongside those of Livy and Tacitus. After a fierce conflict with her half-brother the widowed Galla Placidia fled to Constantinople. In the west, the new tribal confederations of the Franks, Alemanni, Sarmatians and Goths made regular incursions deep into Roman territory. Ammianus Marcellinus Soldier-Historian of the Late Roman Empire (Semple Lectures, University of Cincinnati, 1964), 22-26 offers a recent summary of the evidence. The Late Roman World and its Historian. [158] For clerical privileges increased other citizens' burdens, town magistrates tended to ignore them. Early in 383 he proclaimed his six-year-old elder son Arcadius his co-emperor. Paperback, 9780140444063, 0140444068 He was a pagan and an admirer of the apostate Julian, to whose career about half the surviving books are devoted. After three synods condemned Donatist views, Constantine ordered the confiscation of their churches, but he stopped their persecution after his troops slaughtered a Donatist congregation in 321. Under Diocletian new cavalry units serving directly under the emperors were organized. Christians who were regarded heretics by state authorities were regularly labelled as Manichaeans. Those who remained in Palestine took up arms against the imperial government in 529, but the revolt was crushed and reportedly 100,000 Samaritans were executed. Taking advantage of a conflict between Felix and the military commander of Roman Africa Bonifatius, Aetius staged a coup and had Felix murdered. The local Roman army could not stop the influx of further refugees across the Danube. Marcellinus served as a soldier in the army of . Ideas about a single supreme god who governs the universe were widespread. TheodosiusI renewed their persecution, describing them as followers of a sect who meet in "nefarious retreats and wicked recesses". The recorded Pictish history begins in the early Middle Ages. Required Texts (all also on reserve): Ammianus Marcellinus The Later Roman Empire St. Augustine Confessions Early Christian Lives Eusebius The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine Gregory of Tours A History of the Franks Procopius The Secret History. Ammianus and the late Roman Army 93 ther.4 Constantine had fashioned a large central reserve distinct in . His edits ordered the destruction of Christian churches and literature and the confiscation of church property. Their communities were divided into two groups: the ascetic Elects (who abstained from sex), and the Hearers (who lived a more ordinary life). Aetius who had spent years among the Huns as a hostage returned to Italy accompanied by Hunnic troops but by that time Ardabur had captured John. [136] Pagan temples were first closed under ConstantiusII, but Julian re-opened them. The more radical, mainly rular clergy believed that traditores should be rebaptized. The remaining books covering the period from 353 to 378, are important for the history of the Sasanian empire in the 4th century. 4. [15] Ammianus was aware that writing about contemporary, including events to which he was a witness, raised questions about impartiality. [55] He established a new city on the site of the ancient Greek polis of Byzantium on the Bosporus. 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