The Portrayal and Role of Anger in the Res Gestae of Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus’ treatment of the emotion of anger reveals as much, if not more, about his education, values, beliefs, personality, than it does about the people he writes about. This research contributes to a greater depth of understanding of the role of the key emotion of anger within the individual and collective lives of the characters as portrayed by Ammianus Marcellinus and how he uses them to influence the reader and colour his narrative. Scholars now tend to examine Ammianus to discern or evaluate the historical reliability of his authorship. But there is also scope for examining how Ammianus shapes his narrative and tries to influence the reader by his portraits of individuals and collective characters. Although this approach seems an obvious one, no one has hitherto done this in an extended and thorough way before. Ammianus' treatment and representations of emotions have idiosyncratic features that crucially affect any assessment of him as an observer and reporter of Rome and its past. This careful study of Ammianus’ Res Gestae and the characterisations he incorporated within reveals the discourse of Ammianus, by unearthing the bias, the propagandist elements and the general trends of his portrayals, through keywords that refer directly to anger. In this we can better understand the purpose behind many of these representations.

Barbara Sidwell is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Adelaide. Her area of specialty is Late Antiquity, especially fourth century literature.