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[ SOLD OUT ] ROSEN, K., Ammianus Marcellinus. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1982. VII,237p. Paperback. Series: Erträge der Forschung, 183. (Rare). 'The main text tends to display the virtues of competence and solidity rather than brilliance and incisiveness. The first chapter considers the life and milieu of Amnmianus (15-47). (...) R. makes three important and partly original points. First, Ammianus' duties as a 'protector domesticus' need not have precluded his spending time on intellectual and literary pursuits (...). Second, Libanius' letter to him (Epp. 1063) shows that Ammianus was still reciting parts of his history in Rome in 392: it is unlikely, therfore, that in 392 he had already completed and published Books XXVI-XXXI (...). Third, Ammianus envisages a primary audience which included young men about to embark on an official career. The second chapter considers predicatable literary aspects of Ammianus' history, especially its sources, its structure, its language and, more briefly its narrative technique. The third chapter discusses Ammianus' 'Weltanschauung', the fourth the trustworthiness of the 'Res Gestae', and the fifth and last three specific problems - Ammianus' attitude to Christianity, his use of Eutropius, and possible allusions to him in the 'Historia Augusta'. (...) Manu of the subjects discussed in these five chapters are highly controversial, and no-one is likely to agree with all of R.'s verdicts.' (T.D. BARNES in The Classical Review (New Series), 1985, 48-49). (Antiquarian) (approx. delivery time: undeliverable)