A new edition by Ammianus Marcellinus' Res Gestae

Frontispiece of a 1533 edition of the Stories of Marcellinus

Rome [ENA] Brill Publishing House from ‪Leiden, The Netherlands, just published‬ online the Philological and Historical Commentary to Ammianus Marcellinus' Res Gestae in its Scholarly Editions. This Edition is a reading environment for text editions in the broadest sense of the word: critical editions, facsimiles, translations, and commentaries.Ammianus Marcellinus (4th century CE) was a Roman soldier, historian and author of

Res Gestae, a major historical work on the history of Rome from the period of Emperor Nerva (96 CE) to the death of Emperor Valens (378 CE). Res Gestae, the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquity (preceding Procopius), originally consisted of thirty-one books, although the first thirteen books have been lost. The surviving eighteen books (books 14-31) cover the period from 353 to 378. Ammianus was born in the Greek-speaking East,possibly in Syria or Phoenicia . His native language was most likely Greek;he learned Latin as a second language, and was probably familiar with Syriac as well. Modern scholarship generally describes Ammianus as a pagan who was tolerant of Christianity. Marcellinus writes of Christianity

Rome. Antonine column

as being a pure and simple religion that demands only what is just and mild, and when he condemns the actions of Christians, he does not do so on the basis of their Christianity as such. After the diligent work of P. de Jonge, who wrote commentaries on books 14-19 from the 1930s till the 1980s, J. den Boeft, D. den Hengst, H.C. Teitler and, starting 1995, J.W. Drijvers have steadily worked on the commentaries to the remaining books 20-31 of Res Gestae.

Their collaborative work has received much praise in the international scholarly world, and has been completed in 2018. Ammianus Marcellinus Online includes the commentaries to books 14-31 of Res Gestae as well as two full text editions in Latin on which the commentaries are based (Clark, 1910 and Seyfarth, 1978). Ammianus Marcellinus Online is the digital version of the standard and the only complete commentary on Res Gestae. It is of great importance to scholars in Roman history, Latin philology, military history and historiography in general. Authors: Jan den Boeft, Daniël den Hengst, Hans C. Teitler and Jan Willem Drijvers