Entry (Details):

Native of Antioch Lib. Ep. 1063.

Served at Nisibis in 354 under Vrsicinus 2 Mag. Equ., to whom he had been attached by imperial order Amm. XIV 9.1 (cui nos obsecuturos iunxerat imperiale praeceptum); he accompanied him to Milan on his recall in 354 Amm. XIV 11.5 and in 355 was sent with him to deal with Silvanus Amm. XV 5.22 (tribunis et protectoribus domesticis decem...inter quos ego eram); in 357 when Vrsicinus was sent back to the East, he was again attached to his service Amm. XVI 10.21 (provectis e consortio nostro ad regendos milites natu maioribus, adulescentes eum sequi iubemur, quidquid pro re publica mandaverit impleturi); in 359 he was with Vrsicinus at Samosata Amm. XVIII 4.7 and accompanied him on his recall as far as the Hebrus, where they received orders to return East Amm. XVIII 6.5; they went to Nisibis and thence to Amida Amm. XVIII 6.8.17; he visited the Satrap of Corduene, Iovinianus, whom he appears to have known before Amm. XVIII 6.20-7.1; later he was ambushed with Vrsicinus en route to Samosata and escaped into Amida Amm. XVIII 8.1ff. (he was still domesticus protector XVIII 8.11); when that was stormed he escaped via Melitene to Antioch Amm. XIX 8.12; in 363 he served under Julian on the Persian campaign Amm. XXIII 5.7 ff, cf. 6.30 (his rank is not given), apparently joining the expedition at Cercesium (after which he begins to use the first person plural) and remaining with it until Jovian reached Antioch (363 Oct.) when he seems to have stayed behind (he stops using the first person plural). He spent some time in Antioch Amm. XXX 4.4 and was there in 371/2 Amm. XXIX 1.24, 2.4.

In or after 365 he visited Motho in Laconia Amm. XXVI 10.19. He also visited Egypt Amm. XVII 4.6, XXII 15.1 and Thrace XXII 8.1, XXVII 4.2.

In 392 he received Lib. Ep. 1063 which mentions his fame as an historianiRole name: historian and refers to the publication of his works; he was at the time in Rome. He was probably in Rome already in 383/4 and one of the peregrini expelled owing to the food-shortage at that time Amm. XIV 6.19.

His history originally covered the period from Nerva to the death of Valens (96-378) Amm. XXXI 16.9 haec ut miles quondam et Graecus a principatu Caesaris Nervae exorsus ad usque Valentis interitum pro virium explicavi mensura. The first thirteen books (to 353) are lost. Book XIV (a. 353-4) was published after a. 383 Amm. XIV 6.19 (famine at Rome of 383/4). Books XV to XXV (a. 354-64) probably appeared together not later than 391 Amm. XXII 16.12 (the Serapeum, destroyed in 391, is still standing), cf. Amm. XV 1.1 which marks a division in the work. Books XXVI to XXXI (a. 364-78), which complete the work, were published together after 390 Amm. XXVI 5.14 (the consulship of Neoterius in 390 is mentioned), cf. Amm. XXVI 1.1-2 which marks another division in the work.

See further P-W I 1895, 4; E. A. Thompson, The Historical Work of Ammianus Marcellinus.