Sources and phases of composition in Ammianus XXXI
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/emerita.2019.15.1824Keywords:
Ammianus, book XXXI, sources, structure and composition of the Res Gestae, digressions, military narrative, intertextuality, physiognomy, character portrayalAbstract
This paper proposes that some structural discontinuities in the latest book by Ammianus can be explained because those sections were added to a first version of the text in a subsequent phase of composition and therefore do not depend on the main source: the digression on the Huns and Alans in XXXI 2, some sections of military narrative (XXXI 6.7-8, 8.7-8, 15.10 and 13) and the physiognomic note at the end of Valens’ obituary. These sections are not entirely integrated into the narrative flow and add points inconsistent with the main arguments in the book XXXI. This helps better understand the historian’s literary technique and some apparent inconsistencies in the last book of the Res Gestae.
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