Ammianus Marcellinus, c . 330–395 CE

Ammianus Marcellinus (c. 330–395 ce), a native Greek speaker, composed the last great work of Latin historiography in antiquity. In its original form, his Res Gestae offered an account of Rome that began with the death of Nerva in 96 ce and ended with the death of Valens in 378 ce. The final eighteen books are extant, narrating the central twenty-five years of the 4th century. They are a major source of material for the political and religious history of the final years of Constantius II and the reigns of Julian the Apostate, Jovian, Valentinian I, and Valens. Ammianus describes himself as a “former soldier and a Greek,” and he participated in some of the events that he narrates. His Latin is highly allusive and narratologically complex.