ABSTRACT
Ammianus’ digressions, especially those on geography and ethnography, have in general received little attention.1 That the main interest is still focused on Ammianus’ historical account becomes most obvious from the latest English translation of Ammianus’ work, where all digressions are left out.2 This lack of interest in the geographical digressions among modern scholars may be explained by Theodor Mommsen’s severe judgement of them in his famous article ‘Ammians Geographica’ of 1881.3 Mommsen accuses Ammianus of ‘scheinhaftes Bescheidwissen’, of ‘Unkenntnis’, of ‘das eitle Bemühen um Allwissenheit’ and of using empty words to conceal his deficient knowledge. Mommsen’s negative opinion was soon generally accepted,4 as a consequence of which Ammianus’ geographical digressions have attracted little notice, in spite of the growing interest in Ammianus and his work over the past decades.
