Ammianus, Theodosius and Sallust's Jugurtha

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine Ammianus' treatment of the elder Theodosius and to suggest the existence of certain parallels between his account of Theodosius' suppression of the rising of the Moorish chieftain Firmus (29.5) and an earlier North African war, that waged by Q. Metellus and C. Marius against the Numidian king Jugurtha, narrated in Sallust's monograph. The tentative conclusion will be that a reading of Ammianus that keeps Sallust in mind corroborates a view that is, I believe, defensible in its own right, namely that Ammianus is by no means as uncritical of Theodosius as has sometimes been assumed. Writing under Theodosius' son, he could not of course risk open criticism. Indeed, his portrayal of Theodosius is overtly encomiastic. But, as I have tried to demonstrate elsewhere, Ammianus is capable of subverting even official encomium to produce an effect on his readers very different from that intended by official sources.