Ammianus Marcellinus

c. 330–395 CE

Ammianus Marcellinus, a Greek of Antioch and an officer of the imperial guard, served under Ursicinus in Gaul and the East and marched with Julian into Persia. In retirement at Rome he wrote, in Latin, a history continuing Tacitus from Nerva to the death of Valens at Adrianople in 378; the surviving eighteen books cover the years 353–378 and are the chief narrative of the emperor Julian, told by a soldier who admired him.