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Eunapius, Ammianus Marcellinus, and Zosimus on Julian's Persian Expedition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Walter R. Chalmers
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham

Extract

In a recent article, Dr. A. F. Norman has attributed to Eunapius the authorship of a fragment in Suidas (Adler A 2094 s.v. ), which clearly relates to the siege of Maiozamalcha. His arguments are cogent and must, I think, be accepted. Some slight additional support for the attribution is provided by the fact that it contains the adverb of which, as Vollebregt pointed out, Eunapius was particularly fond. Norman compares this fragment with the relevant passages in Ammianus Marcellinus (24. 4. 23) and Zosimus (3. 22. 4) and points out that if the attribution is correct, ‘now, and for the first time, we have a reference to the same incident of this campaign from the narratives of Ammianus, Eunapius, and Zosimus’.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1960

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References

page 152 note 1 ‘Magnus in Ammianus, Eunapius, and Zosimus: New Evidence’, C. Q. n.s. vii (1957), 129–33.Google Scholar

page 152 note 2 Symbola in novam Eunapii Vitarum editionem (Amsterdam, 1929), p. IIIGoogle Scholar.

page 152 note 3 De ration quae intercedat inter Zosimi et Ammiani de bello a Juliano imperatore cum Persfisgesto relationes (Bonn, 1870), pp. 89 ff.Google Scholar

page 152 note 4 Leipzig, 1887, p. xxxix.Google Scholar

page 152 note 5 Eunapius' historical fragments are to be found in Müller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, iv. 11–56, and Dindorf, Historici Graeci Minores, i. 207–74.

page 153 note 1 R.E. xiv. 491–3.

page 153 note 2 ‘Zur Geschichte des Kaisers Julianus, eine Quellenstudie’, Programm Kreuznach, 1886.Google Scholar I have become acquainted with this theory from the reference to it in Reinhardt, G., ‘Der Perserkrieg des Kaisers Julian’, Schulnachrichten des Herzogl. Friedrichssealgymnasiums, 1892, p. 15.Google Scholar

page 153 note 3 Op. cit., p. 17.

page 153 note 4 CfKlotz, , ‘Die Quellen Ammians in der Darstellung von Julians Perserzug’, Rheinisehes Museum lxxi (1916), 461, n. 1.Google Scholar

page 153 note 5 Op. cit., pp. xlii ff.

page 153 note 6 Cf. Müller, op. cit., pp. 4–6; Dindorf, op. cit., pp. 366–9, and Jacoby, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, iiB, pp. 951–4.

page 153 note 7 Op. cit., p. 4.

page 153 note 8 The Historical Work of Ammianus Marcellinus (Cambridge, 1947), pp. 2833.Google Scholar The theory was accepted, with individual elaborations or reservations, by, among others, Seeck, , ‘Zur Chronologie und Quellenkritik des Ammianus Marcellinus’, Hermes xli (1906), 481539Google Scholar; Klein, , ‘Studien zu Ammianus Marcellinus’, Klio Beiheft xiii (1914); and Klotz, op. cit.Google Scholar

page 153 note 9 Op. Cit., p. 532.

page 153 note 10 Op. cit., P. 490.

page 153 note 11 Cf. Rolfe's note in the Loeb edition of Ammianus, ii (London, 1950),444Google Scholar; Fiebiger, s.v. Corona, R.E. iv. 1636–43; and the remark in Thes. Ling. Lat. s.v. Corona, I B2b; ‘haec corona ab Iuliano restituebatur quidem, sed non amplius ex more antiquo donabatur.’

page 154 note 1 Op. cit., pp. xxxix–xlvii.

page 154 note 2 Since writing the above I have been interested to find that the same point has been made by Brok, M. F. A., De Perzische Expeditie van Keizer Julianus volgens Ammianus Marcellinus (Groningen, 1959), pp. 1415.Google Scholar I am very grateful to Professor A. D. Momiglíano for bringing this work to my notice, and to the editors of the Classical Quarterly for permitting me to include references to it.

page 154 note 3 Op. Cit., Appendix I, pp. 134–7.

page 155 note 1 The fragments of Eunapius in the Excerpta de Sententiis appear normally to be arranged in chronological order. Some support would be given for my theory by the fact that fr. 22. 2. refers to events . On the other hand, my theory collapses if, as Mai thought, fr. 22. 4 refers to the events narrated in Amm. 24. 7. 8, which preceded the army's arrival at Hucumbra. I would suggest that fr. 22. 4 could quite as well refer to the Army's reactions to Julian's disciplinary measures described in Amm. 25. 1. 6–9. If so, it would be correctly placed chronologically after one referring to Hucumbra and before fr. 23 which clearly relates to the period after the death of Julian.

page 155 note 2 Oribasius, Libri ad Eunapium, ed. Raeder, C.M.G. vi. 3 (Leipzig and Berlin, 1926), 315–498. The preface is reproduced in Sophistarum, Eunapii Vitae, ed. Giangrande (Rome, 1956), pp. xxxvii f.Google Scholar

page 155 note 3 He was still alive when Eunapius wrote his later work, The Lives of the Philosophers (Lives, p. 105/499).

page 155 note 4 Cf. Thompson, op. cit., p. 134.

page 155 note 5 Greek Medicine in Rome (London, 1921), pp. 407–8.Google Scholar Cf. also pp. 277 and 413. On Oribasius in general cf. Schröder, R.E. Supplbd. vii. 797–812.

page 156 note 1 Op. cit., p. 531.

page 156 note 2 Cf. p. 152 above.

page 156 note 3 On the dating of Zosimus cf. Mendelssohn, op. cit., pp. v ff.

page 157 note 1 For a discussion of the geography of this area cf. Brok, op. cit., pp. 102 f.

page 157 note 2 Cf. Thompson, op. cit., p. 18.

page 157 note 3 ‘The of Eunapius’ Histories', C.Q. N.S. iii (1953), 165–70.Google Scholar

page 157 note 4 Cf. p. 169 in the above article.

page 157 note 5 CfThompson, , op. cit., pp. II ff. and my ‘An Alleged Doublet in Ammianus Marcellinus”, Rhein. Mus. cii (1959), 183–9.Google Scholar

page 158 note 1 ‘Der Tod des Kaisers Julian’, Phllologus li, 561–80, p. 563, n. 6.

page 158 note 2 Cf. Thompson, op. cit., p. 33.

page 158 note 3 Cf. Thompson, op. cit., p. 30.

page 159 note 1 Op. cit., pp. 488 f.

page 160 note 1 Pace Klein, who (op. cit., IO) thought that 15 years' service would not suffice to make a man completely into a soldier. Probably in 1914 von Hindenburg loomed larger than Alexander the Great—or Julian! Cf. Brok, op. cit., p. 15.