Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

AMMIANUS, MARCELLINUS

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 860 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

AMMIANUS, See also:MARCELLINUS , the last See also:Roman historian of importance, was See also:born about A.D. 325-330 at See also:Antioch; the date of his See also:death is unknown, but he must have lived till 391, as he mentions Aurelius See also:Victor as the See also:city See also:prefect for that See also:year. He was a See also:Greek, and his enrolment among the protectores domestici (See also:household See also:guards) shows that he was of See also:noble See also:birth. He entered the See also:army at an See also:early See also:age, when See also:Constantius II. was See also:emperor of the See also:East, and was sent to serve under Ursicinus, See also:governor of See also:Nisibis and magister militiae. He returned to See also:Italy with Ursicinus, when he was recalled by Constantius, and accompanied him on the expedition against See also:Silvanus the See also:Frank, who had been forced by the unjust accusations of his enemies into proclaiming himself emperor in See also:Gaul. With Ursicinus he went twice to the East, and barely escaped with his See also:life from Amida or Amid (mod.Diarbekr), when it was taken by the See also:Persian See also:king See also:Shapur (Sapor) II. When Ursicinus lost his See also:office and the favour of Constantius, Ammianus seems to have shared his downfall; but under See also:Julian, Constantius's of the See also:Middle See also:Kingdom adopted the same name; and when the Theban See also:family of the XVIItfi See also:dynasty drove out the See also:Hyksos, See also:Ammon, as the See also:god of the royal city, was again prominent. It was not, however, until the rulers of the XVIIIth dynasty carried their victorious arms beyond the See also:Egyptian frontiers in every direction that Ammon began to assume the proportions of a universal god for the Egyptians, eclipsing all their other deities and asserting his See also:power over the gods of all See also:foreign lands. To Ammon the Pharaohs attributed all their successful enter-prises, and on his temples they lavished their See also:wealth and captured spoil. Ammon is figured of human See also:form, wearing on his See also:head a See also:plain deep circlet' from which rise two straight parallel plumes, perhaps representing the tail feathers of a See also:hawk. Two See also:main types are seen: in the one he is seated on a See also:throne, in the other he isstanding, ithyphallic, holding a See also:scourge, precisely like See also:Min, the god of See also:Coptos andChemmis (See also:Akhmim). The latter may be his See also:original form, as a god of fertility, before whom the king ceremoniously breaks up the ground' for See also:sowing or cuts the ripe See also:corn.

His See also:

consort was sometimes called Amaune (feminine of Amun), but more usually See also:Mat, "See also:mother ": she was human-headed, wearing the See also:double See also:crown of Upper and See also:Lower See also:Egypt, and their son was Ihons (Chon or See also:Chons), a lunar god, represented as a youth wearing the See also:crescent and disk of the See also:moon. 'A See also:great See also:temple waS built to Milt at See also:Karnak not later than the XVIIIth dynasty, and another to Khons not later than the XXth dynasty. The name of Re, the See also:sun-god, was generally joined to Ammon, especially in his See also:title as " king of the gods ": the See also:rule of See also:heaven belonged to the sun-god in the Egyptian cosmos, and this See also:identification with Re was only logical for a supreme deity. Ammon was entitled " See also:lord of the thrones of the two lands," or, more proudly still, " king of the gods." Such `indeed was his unquestioned position when suddenly he was overthrown and his See also:worship proscribed. Not even a henotheist fervently worshipping one of many gods, Amenophis (Amenhotp) IV. of the XVIIIth dynasty became the monotheist Akhenaton; discarding all the gods of Egypt, and especially persecuting Ammon the See also:arch-god, he devoted himself to the purer and more See also:sublime worship of Aton, the sun. But he failed to win the permanent See also:adhesion of the See also:people to his reform, or to conciliate or entirely crush the enormously powerful priesthood of Ammon. A few years after the reformer's death, the old cults were re-established and the monuments of Aton studiously defaced. See also:Hymns were then addressed to See also:Amen-re, which are almost'monotheistic in expression. The cult of the supreme god spread throughout Egypt and was carried by the Egyptian conquerors into other lands, See also:Syria, See also:Ethiopia and See also:Libya, and was accepted by the natives both in Ethiopia and in the Libyan cases, where See also:civilization was See also:low and Egyptian See also:influence permanent. After the XXth dynasty the centre of power was removed from See also:Thebes, and the authority of Ammon began to wane. In the XXlst dynasty the 'secondary See also:line of See also:priest See also:kings of Thebes upheld his dignity to the best of their power, and the XXHnd dynasty favoured Thebes:" but as the See also:sovereignty' weakened the See also:division between Upper and Lower Egypt asserted itself, and thereafter Thebes would have rapidly decayed had it not been for the piety of the kings of Ethiopia towards Ammon, whose worship had See also:long prevailed in their See also:country. Thebes was at first their Egyptian See also:capital, and they honoured Ammon greatly, although their wealth and culture were not sufficient to effect much.

Ammon (See also:

Zeus) continued to be the great god of Thebes in its decay, and notwithstanding that' a See also:nome-capital in the See also:north of the See also:Delta and many lesser temliles, from 'El Hibeh in Middle Egypt to See also:Canopus on the See also:sea, acknowledged'Ammon as their supreme divinity, he probably in some degree represented the See also:national aspirations, of Upper Egypt as opposed to Middle and Lower Egypt: he also 'remained the national god of Ethiopia, where his name was pronounced Amane. The priests' of Anane' at Meroe and Napata, in fact, regulated through his See also:oracle the whole See also:government of the country, choosing the king, directing his military expeditions (and even compelling him to commit See also:suicide, according to Diodorus) until in the aid See also:century B.C. Arkamane (Ergamenes) See also:broke through the bondage 86o successor, he regained his position. He accompanied this emperor, for whom he expresses enthusiastic admiration, in his See also:campaigns against the See also:Alamanni and the Persians; after his death he took See also:part in the See also:retreat of Jovianas far as Antioch, where he was residing when the See also:conspiracy of See also:Theodorus (371) was discovered and cruelly put down: Eventually he settled in See also:Rome, where, at an advanced age, he wrote (in Latin) a See also:history of the Roman See also:empire from the See also:accession of See also:Nerva to the death of See also:Valens (96-378), thus forming a continuation of the See also:work of See also:Tacitus. This history (Rerum Gestarum Libri XXXI.) was originally in See also:thirty-one books; of these the first thirteen are lost, the eighteen which remain See also:cover the See also:period from 353 to 378. As a whole it'is extremely valuable, being a clear, comprehensive and impartial See also:account of events by a contemporary of soldierly honesty, See also:independent See also:judgment and wide See also:reading. "Ammianus' is an accurate and faithful See also:guide, who composed the history of his own times without indulging the prejudices and passions which usually affect the mind of a contemporary" (See also:Gibbon). AlthoughAmmianus was no doubt a See also:heathen, his attitude towards See also:Christianity is that of a See also:man of the See also:world, See also:free from prejudices in favour of any form of belief. If anything he himself inclined to neo-See also:Platonism. His See also:style is generally harsh, often pompous and extremely obscure, occasionally even journalistic in See also:tone, but the author's foreign origin and his military life and training partially explain this. Further, the work being intended for public recitation, some rhetorical embellishment was necessary, even at the cost of simplicity. It is a striking fact that Ammianus, though a professional soldier, gives excellent pictures of social and economic problems, and in his attitude to the non-Roman peoples of the empire he is far more broad-minded than writers like See also:Livy and Tacitus; his digressions on the various countries he had visited are peculiarly interesting.

In his description of the empire-the exhaustion produced by excessive See also:

taxation, the See also:financial ruin of the middle classes, the progressive decline in the morale of the army—we find the explanation of its fall before the Goths twenty years after his death. The work was discovered by See also:Poggio, who copied the original MS. Editio princeps (bks. 14-26) by Sabinus, 1474; completed by See also:Accursius, 1533; with variorum notes, by See also:Wagner-Erfurdt, 1808; latest edition of See also:text, Gardthausen, 1874-1875. See also:English See also:translations by P. See also:Holland, 1609; See also:Yonge (See also:Bohn's Classical Library), 1862; also Max Budinger, Ammianus Marcellinus and See also:die'Eigenart seines Geschichtswerkes (1895); F. Liesenberg, Die Sprache See also:des Ammianus Marcellinus (1888–1890) ; T. R. See also:Glover, Life and Letters in the See also:Fourth Century (1901); See also:Abbe Gimazane, Ammianus Marcellinus, sa See also:vie et son ceuvre (See also:Toulouse, 1889), a work containing a number of very doubtful theories. For a See also:criticism of his views on Roman society see S. See also:Dill, Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire (See also:London, 1898).

End of Article: AMMIANUS, MARCELLINUS

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
AMMANATI, BARTOLOMEO (1511-1592)
[next]
AMMIRATO, SCIPIONE (1531-16or)