Need Recomendation on Ammianus Marcellinus (ancient, Roman, empire, historical)

[Thyra]

I've been doing quite a bit of reading this summer on the Roman Empire and keep "bumping" into Marcellinus ! I wonder if there are any books about him (under $200)..I don't just want a translation, I'd like to learn more about him. Thanks in advance

[John Walmsley]

Originally Posted by Thyra

I've been doing quite a bit of reading this summer on the Roman Empire and keep "bumping" into Marcellinus ! I wonder if there are any books about him (under $200)..I don't just want a translation, I'd like to learn more about him. Thanks in advance

Thyra,

The impression I got is that there isn't much known about Marcellinus personally, except for his remaining source work titled Res Gestae. Timothy David Barnes is the author of a book from Cornell University Press titled "Ammianus Marcellinus and the Representation of Historical Reality." The book normally goes for over $60, but is available from Amazon under $20. A note said that some doubt has been cast on Mercellinus' accuracy over the last fifty years. However, I read the same about Livy a couple years ago when reading about Hannibal and the Punic Wars. There were more books listed by Amazon concerning Marcellinus, but I thought this one might be more of what you are looking for.

[Thyra]

Thanks, John...just put it on my Amazon "Wish list". You bring up a good point. One has to be careful about reading the ancient historians, and probably current ones also, as they all have their agendas, political, religious,etc. I always appreciate reading a book where the author states,"So and so was motivated by such and such, so take what he said with that in mind." I also found a few other books at Amazon that I might look into. I never realized how interesting that era was until I really started exploring it. Thanks,again