Wiener Studien 130/2017, pp. 201-244, 2017/06/26
Zeitschrift für Klassische Philologie, Patristik und lateinische Tradition
The text tradition and the critical emendation of Ammianus Marcellinus sometimes are a philological nightmare, rather often a difficult task to deal with. Many scholars assume the Teubner edition to be the last word on this subject; but Clark’s work cannot be dismissed so easily. The core issue is Ammianus’ own personal blend of literary Latin; today old prejudices still haunt Ammianean studies and lead them astray. This paper aims at showing how both a free mind approach to Ammianus’ highly original Latin and the philological principle of the usus scribendi, together with the steady help of Latin paleography, can substantially improve the transmitted text and our understanding of several passages.
