The idea for this project was hatched following a series of conversations between David Woods, the Head of the Department of Classics at University College Cork, Ireland, and Michael Hanaghan, who had joined the department in 2016 while holding a two-year Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded by the Irish Research Council. Both Woods and Hanaghan worked on the Res gestae of Ammianus Marcellinus, but for two very different reasons; Woods viewed Ammianus history primarily as a source, a rich repertoire of historical evidence that rewarded careful analysis, whereas Hanaghan considered Ammianus’ history primarily for its literary value. In the course of the two years working together, both Hanaghan and Woods came to realise the many benefits, literary and historical, of combining their approaches to Ammianus.
In mid-2018, during an unusually warm Irish summer, a group of scholars gathered to consider the impact that Ammianus’ military experience had on his Res gestae. A select number of papers presented at that conference, conceived in response to an open call, form the backbone of this edited volume. The editors would like to thank University College Cork and the Irish Research Council for their funding.
