Ammianus, the Romans and Constantius II: Res Gestae XIV.6 and XVI.10

In the History of Ammianus Marcellinus there are a large number of digressions, the majority of which conform to the practices of ancient historiography, which included them as a necessary background to the narrative text.1 Two of the digressions have, however, attracted particular attention as quite unusual within the tradition, those in which Ammianus discusses in vitriolic language the inhabitants of the city of Rome (XIV.6 and XXVIII.4).2 Since both of these so-called "Roman" digressions cover the same material and in many respects the second seems to be an expansion and variation of the first, scholars have always discussed them together. Neither of these digressions has a particular connection to the narrative which surrounds it, both are generalising, and both emphasise the vices of their subjects in language that varies from ironical to openly sarcastic, so that they have been compared to the work of the Roman satirists.3 The strongly moralising stance which they display reflects, albeit in an exaggerated form, the general tone of the History. It is usually and plausibly held, however, that the very real and personal anger evident in these digressions was a consequence of Ammianus' own experience when, some time after 378 A.D., with high expectations he arrived in the city of Rome intending to settle there and write his History, only to have these expectations dashed by the indifferent, even hostile, reception he found there. Indeed, the discussion of these digressions usually stops at this point: they are read as little more than a petulant expression of personal pique.4