ABSTRACT
Ammianus Marcellinus deals predominantly with political and military affairs in his treatment of the reigns of the fourth-century emperors who are central to the extant books of his Res Gestae that describe the historical events of the years 354378. Cultural interaction and adaptation in all its different forms and expressions are not subjects to which Ammianus paid much attention in his work, in spite of the great cultural transformations, in particular in the area of religion, the Roman world of his time experienced. This is not to say that Ammianus was unfamiliar with or had no interest in the culture of his society. On the contrary: Ammianus was a man of culture. Although his biography is elusive, we can reasonably assume that Ammianus grew up in Antioch where his family belonged to the urban elite.1 He was no doubt brought up in the tradition of classical paideia. His Res Gestae displays his knowledge of the classical tradition and is itself probably the best example of his cultural interest: it was deliberately composed in the cultural and literary convention of classical historiography as is clear from its style and the many implicit and explicit allusions to the writers of old and to ancient history.2
