Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T20:19:10.509Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ammianus, Magnus Maximus and the Gothic Uprising

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2020

Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele
Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Ghent [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It has been asserted that the usurper Magnus Maximus can be identified with the commander Maximus who served during the Gothic uprising of 376–77. This assertion is tempting because it connects imperial events in Africa, the Balkans and Britain during a pivotal period. However, this note aims to dispel this identification. It does so by both examining the socio-institutional ramifications of promotion in the imperial chain of command and cross-examining literary traditions previously overlooked in this identification.

Keywords

AmmianusBritainBalkansGothsMagnus Maximus
Type
Shorter Contributions
Information
Britannia , Volume 51 , November 2020 , pp. 330 - 335
Copyright
Copyright © The Author, 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I would like to thank Gavin Kelly and Philip Rance for elucidating a few aspects pertaining to the arguments discussed and the reviewers of Britannia for their generous feedback. All have helped to improve the final version of this article, which was made possible thanks to the support of the Special Research Fund (Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds (B.O.F.)) of Ghent University.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Birley, A.R. 1983: ‘Magnus Maximus and the persecution of heresy’, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 66, 13–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birley, A.R. 2005: The Roman Government of Britain, OxfordCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, T.S. 1994: Barbarians within the Gates of Rome: A Study of Roman Military Policy and the Barbarians, ca. 375–425, Bloomington and IndianapolisGoogle Scholar
Curran, J.R. 1998: ‘From Jovian to Theodosius’, in Cameron, A. and Garnsey, P. (eds), The Cambridge Ancient History 13: The Late Empire, AD 337–425, Cambridge, 78–110Google Scholar
den Boeft, J., Drijvers, J.W., den Hengst, D., and Teitler, H.C. (eds) 2013: Philological and Historical Commentary on Ammianus Marcellinus XXIX, LeidenCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drinkwater, J.F. 1998: ‘The usurpers Constantine III (407–411) and Jovinus (411–413)’, Britannia 29, 269–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Errington, M. 1996a: ‘The accession of Theodosius I’, Klio 78, 438–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Errington, M. 1996b: ‘Theodosius and the Goths’, Chiron 26, 1–27Google Scholar
Halsall, G. 2007: Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376–568, CambridgeCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, G. 2013: ‘The political crisis of AD 375–376’, Chiron 43, 357–409Google Scholar
Kötter, J.-M., and Scardino, C. 2017: Gallische Chroniken, Kleine und Fragmentarische Historiker der Spätantike, PaderbornCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulikowski, M. 2000: ‘Barbarians in Gaul, usurpers in Britain’, Britannia 31, 325–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulikowski, M. 2007: Rome's Gothic Wars: From the Third Century to Alaric, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Kulikowski, M. 2012: ‘Coded polemic in Ammianus book 31 and the date and place of its composition’, Journal of Roman Studies 102, 79–102CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lunn-Rockliffe, S. 2010: ‘Commemorating the usurper Magnus Maximus: ekphrasis, poetry, and history in Pacatus’ panegyric of Theodosius’, Journal of Late Antiquity 3.2, 316–36Google Scholar
Mann, J.C. 1991: ‘The Notitia Dignitatum: dating and survival’, Britannia 22, 215–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mariev, S. 2008: Ioannis Antiocheni fragmenta quae supersunt, Berlin and New YorkCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, J.F. 1975: Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court AD 364–425, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Modéran, Y. 2014: Les Vandales et l'Empire romain, ArlesGoogle Scholar
Nixon, C.E.V., and Rodgers, B.S. 1994: In Praise of Later Roman Emperors: The Panegyrici Latini: Introduction, Translation and Historical Commentary, BerkeleyGoogle Scholar
Omissi, A. 2018: Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire, OxfordCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paschoud, F. 1979: Zosime: Histoire Nouvelle (Live IV), ParisGoogle Scholar
Paschoud, F., and Szidat, J. (eds) 1997: Usurpationen in der Spätantike, StuttgartGoogle Scholar
Potter, D. 2004: The Roman Empire at Bay: AD 180–395, London and New YorkCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rance, P. 2001: ‘Attacotti, Déisi and Magnus Maximus: the case for Irish federates in late Roman Britain’, Britannia 32, 243–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ridley, R.T. 1982: Zosimus : New History, CanberraCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, W.E. 1997: ‘Magnus Maximus’, De Imperatoribus Romanis, https://www.roman-emperors.org/madmax.htm (accessed February 2020)Google Scholar
Rolfe, J.C. 1939: Res Gestae: Ammianus Marcellinus 3, Cambridge, MAGoogle Scholar
Sabbah, G. 1978: La méthode d'Ammien Marcellin: recherches sur la construction du discours historique dans les Res Gestae, ParisCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sivan, H. 1996: ‘Was Theodosius I a usurper?’, Klio 78, 198–211CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sogno, C. 2006: Q. Aurelius Symmachus: A Political Biography, Ann ArborCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szidat, J. 2010: Usurpator tanti nominis: Kaiser und Usurpator in der Spätantike. StuttgartGoogle Scholar
Wardman, A.E. 1984: ‘Usurpers and internal conflicts in the 4th century AD’, Historia 33.2, 220–37Google Scholar
Wijnendaele, J.W.P. 2016: ‘Stilicho, Radagaisus, and the so-called “Battle of Faesulae”’, Journal of Late Antiquity 9.1, 267–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, S., and Friell, G. 1994: Theodosius: The Empire at Bay, New HavenGoogle Scholar