PREFACE

...having endeavored to assist your meditations.
Ammianus did not invent or give birth to his material; rather, like a stone-cutter original: lapidarius. The editor uses this metaphor to suggest that a historian's job is not to create fiction, but to shape and refine the raw "stone" of historical facts provided by reality., he polished what was provided by his own age—which was indeed rough and uncultivated—not by imposing a new form upon it, but by skillfully expressing and properly refining the very image of things. He narrates historical deeds well—that is, with sincerity, clarity, and wisdom. At times, he acts as a stern judge and censor of the participants; and, recoiling from all fiction, he moderately commends good deeds while condemning their opposites. He brings to his work his own prudence and eloquence (which is military in character, born of that martial age Ammianus was a professional soldier, a member of the elite protectores domestici, which heavily influenced his direct and often gritty prose style during the turbulent 4th century.), and he keeps this goal in sight: to be of service through the explanation of historical events. He writes not only of wars but also reveals the secrets of princes; he delights and sharpens the minds of geographers, investigators of the natural world, and universal scholars polyhistores: scholars who are knowledgeable in many different fields of study, such as history, geography, and science. He is marvelous in his "pictures" original: picturis. This refers to ekphrasis, a rhetorical technique where the writer provides a vivid, detailed description of a person, place, or event to make it "visible" to the reader. of all things, leaving nothing untouched that he does not represent expressed in vivid colors. How many descriptions he provides of places and kings, of differences in customs, the character of various peoples, the layouts of cities, and the downfalls of empires and noble families! The knowledge of these things affects the reader with incredible pleasure. Nor should we dwell on the judgments of those who reject Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus is often referred to simply as "Marcellinus" in Renaissance and early modern scholarship. on account of his style.