Ammianus and the great tsunami

Journal of Roman Studies

Volumn 94, Issue , 2004, Pages 141-167

  Kelly, Gavin ^a  

^a PETERHOUSE   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 34347294361     PISSN: 00754358     EISSN: 1753528X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0075435800064212     Document Type: Review

References (77)

1. With ten different words for the waters, Ammianus surpasses in elaborate variation the nine synonyms of mare in the opening of Catullus 64. On Ammianus' descriptive technique, see M. Roberts on the aduentus of Constantius ('The treatment of narrative in late antique literature: Ammianus Marcellinus (16.10), Rutilius Namatianus, and Paulinus of Pella', Philologus 132 (1988), 181-95, at 183): 'the effect is of a series of brilliantly eye-catching but discrete visual impressions, which in part by their very brilliance deter the reader from trying to piece together the individual scenes into a coherently ordered whole.'
2. See Section III below
3. See for example E. A. Thompson, The Historical Work of Ammianus Marcellinus (1947), 13
4. and J. F. Matthews, The Roman Empire of Ammianus (1989), 14-17
5. Matthews also (192) has a brief appreciation of the passage in the context of the structure of Book 26. C. Lepelley, 'Le présage du nouveau désastre de Cannes: la signification du raz de marée du 21 juillet 365 dans l'imaginaire d'Ammien Marcellin', Kôkalos 36-37 (1990-91) [1994], 359-74, offers a literary interpretation of the tsunami as presaging Adrianople
6. F. Jacques and B. Bousquet, 'Le raz de marée du 21 juillet 365', MEFRA 96 (1984), 423-61, have some pertinent observations at 450-1
7. The only other discussions of its literary purpose and merits I have found are G. Sabbah, La méthode d'Ammien Marcellin (1978), 555-8
8. an enigmatic comment from R. B. Steele, 'Ammianus Marcellinus', Classical World 16 (1922), 18-24, 27-8, at 20
9. and before that the unflattering remark of Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88, ed. D. Womersley, 1995), ch. 26, I.1023 n. 1: 'Such is the bad taste of Ammianus, that it is not easy to distinguish his facts from his metaphors
10. Bibliography concerned with the realities of the event can be found in E. Guidoboni (with A. Comastri and G. Traina, trans. B. Phillips), Catalogue of Ancient Earthquakes in the Mediterranean Area up to the 10th Century (1994) (a supplemented and corrected translation of the catalogue in E. Guidoboni (ed.), I terremoti prima del mille in Italia e nell' area mediterranea (1989), which also has several relevant articles)
11. See also N. N. Ambraseys, C. P. Melville and R. D. Adams, The Seismicity of Egypt, Arabia and the Red Sea: a Historical Review (1994), 22-4
12. G. Waldherr, 'Die Geburt der "kosmischen Katastrophe". Das seismische Großereignis am 21. Juli 365 n. Chr.', Orbis Terrarum 3 (1997), 169-201
13. Kelletat, 'Geologische Belege katastrophaler Erdkrustenbewegungen 365 AD im Raum von Kreta', in E. Olhausen and H. Sonnabend (eds), Naturkatastrophen in der antiken Welt: Stuttgarter Kolloquium zur historischen Geographie des Altertums 6, 1996 (1998), 156-61
14. S. Stiros, 'The AD 365 Crete earthquake and possible seismic clustering during the fourth to sixth centuries AD in the eastern Mediterranean: a review of historical and archaeological data', Journal of Structural Geology 23 (2001), 545-62
15. S. Price, T. Higham, L. Nixon, and J. Moody, 'Relative sea-level changes in Crete: reassessment of radiocarbon dates from Sphakia and West Crete', BSA 97 (2002), 171-200. See these last two items for more comprehensive bibliography
16. and M. Henry, 'Le témoignage de Libanius et les phénomènes sismiques de IVe siècle de notre ère. Essai d'interpretation', Phoenix 39 (1985), 36-61
17. See also G. J. Baudy, 'Die Wiederkehr des Typhon. Katastrophen-Topoi in nachjulianischer Rhetorik und Annalistik: zu literarischen Reflexen des 21 Juli 365 n.C.', JAC 35 (1992), 47-82
18. Mazza, 'Cataclismi e calamità naturali: la documentazione letteraria', Kôkalos 36-37 (1990-91) [1994], 307-30
19. Providentialism is narrowly defined by F. Paschoud, 'Justice et providence chez Ammien Marcellin', Hestiasis. Studi di tarda antichità offerti a Salvatore Calderone vol.I (1986), 139-61, at 139: 'the conception according to which the fulfilment or non-fulfilment of religious commands has as a rapid, necessary and plainly visible consequence either punishment or reward.'
20. The main focus of Section I below
21. Section II below
22. Section IV below
23. Section III below
24. The theory of a Mediterranean earthquake of an extent not just unusual but unimaginable can only be rescued by positing a chain of earthquakes with various epicentres (see A. Di Vita, 'Sismi, urbanistica e cronologia assoluta: terremoti e urbanistica nelle città di Tripolitania fra il I secolo a. C. e il IV d. C.', in, L'Afrique dans l'Occident romain, Collection de l'École Française de Rome 134 (1990), 425-94, at 466-74)
25. See for example, P. A. Pirazzoli et al., 'Historical environmental changes at Phalasarna Harbor, West Crete', Geoarchaeology 7 (1992), 371-92
26. Guidoboni ascribes to it a strength of X-XI on the EMS (European macro-seismic) scale, as great as any other earthquske in antiquity. The force of tsunamis can generally be correlated to the size of the earthquake that generates them. See E. Bryant, Tsunami: The Underrated Hazard (2001), 15
27. See L. Bachielli, 'A Cyrenaica earthquake post 364 A.D.: written sources and archaeological evidence', Annali di Geofisica 38 (1995), 977-82
28. On mainland Greece, see R. M. Rothaus, Corinth, the First City of Greece: an Urban History of Late Antique Cult and Religion (2000), 18-21
29. Earthquake damage in North Africa is detached from the event of A.D. 365 by C. Lepelley, 'L'Afrique du nord et le prétendu séisme universel du 21 juillet 365', MEFRA 96 (1984), 463-91
30. On Sicily, contrast A. Di Vita, 'La villa di Piazza Armerina e l'arte musiva in Sicilia', Kôkalos 18-19 (1972-1973), 251-63, at 256-7
31. with R. J. A. Wilson, Sicily under the Roman Empire (1990), 185-7
32. who argues for an earthquake in A.D. 363/4 as well as the tsunami of A.D. 365 (cf. E. Guidoboni, A. Muggia and G. Valensise, 'Aims and methods in territorial archaeology: possible clues to a strong fourth-century A.D. earthquake in the Straits of Messina (southern Italy)', in W. McGuire et al., The Archaeology of Geological Catastrophe (2000), 45-70)
33. The entry for A.D. 365 was published in about A.D. 370. See R. W. Burgess, The Chronicle of Hydatius and the Consularia Constantinopolitana (1993), 196. Significantly, this earliest explicit narrative mentions only the sea passing its boundaries, not the earthquake
34. Nova Patrum Bibliotheca VI.1, p. 15, now SC 317, p. 269
35. T. Orlandi (ed.), Constantini episcopi urbis Siout Encomia in Athanasium duo (CSCO 349/Copt. 37) (1974), 1.22-5, 27
36. On ancient perceptions of earthquakes, see G. Traina, 'Terremoti e società romana: problemi di mentalità e uso delle informazioni', ASNP 15 (1985), 867-87
37. See F. Kolb, Herrscherideologie in der Spätantike (2001), 98-9, for the characteristics of a legitimate proclamation
38. and Mazza, op. cit. (n. 5), 318
39. Trans. Norman
40. See n. 46
41. Lepelley, op. cit. (n. 20), 363 n. 3
42. A. Bauer and J. Strzygowski, Eine alexandrinische Weltchronik. Text und Miniaturen eines griechischen Papyrus der Sammlung W. Golenischev (1906)
43. C. Mango and R. Scott, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor (1997), lxxviii-lxxx
44. Bryant, op. cit. (n. 17), passim, e.g. 161-2
45. R. Rebuffat, 'Cuicul, le 21 juillet 365', Antiquités Africaines 15 (1980), 309-28, at 322
46. As they are by Thompson, op. cit. (n. 3), 29-31
47. and C. W. Fornara, 'Julian's Persian expedition in Ammianus and Zosimus', JHS 111 (1991), 1-15
48. See also Sabbah, op. cit. (n. 3), 349-50
49. Ammianus is a prime example for the examination of autopsy in Classical historiography by J. Marincola, Authority and Tradition in Ancient Historiography (1997)
50. See n. 3 above
51. Matthews, op. cit. (n. 3), 17
52. and Henry, op. cit. (n. 5). 39
53. (reprinted in Sesto contributo alla storia degli studi classici e del mondo antico (1980), 142-57)
54. Austin, op. cit. (n. 70), 64
55. 19.1.2, 19.1.9, 19.4.3, 19-6.7
56. See F. Paschoud, '"Se non è vero, è ben trovato": tradition littéraire et vérité historique chez Ammien Marcellin', Chiron 19 (1989), 37-54, at 41-53, end works cited there
57. Paschoud, op. cit. (n. 80), 39, claims that narratives of personal experiences are more prone to be distortions of the truth
58. On arrangement in hexads, see Barnes, op. cit. (n. 49), 23-6
59. For a discussion see Sabbah, op. cit. (n. 3), 557-8
60. Matthews, op. cit. (n. 3), 192
61. For doubts as to Ammianus' knowledge of Herodotus and Thucydides, see C. W. Fornara, 'Studies in Ammianus Marcellinus II: Ammianus' use and knowledge of Greek and Latin literature', Historia 41 (1992), 420-38
62. P. de Jonge, Philological and Historical Commentary on Ammianus Marcellinus Book XVII (1977), ad loc
63. Trans. Fairclough / Goold
64. On Ammianus' denigration of Jovian see P. Heather, 'Ammianus on Jovisn: history snd literature', in Drijvers and Hunt, op. cit. (n. 90), 105-16
65. and N. Lenski, 'The election of Jovian and the role of the late imperial guards', Klio 82 (2000), 492-515
66. For identification and interpretation of the allusion to Plato, see Barnes, op. cit. (n. 49), 141
67. Sabbah, op. cit. (n. 3), 556. He describes Julian as 'fidèle au dieu solaire', presumably implying a (somewhat fanciful) connection to the sun's rays touching the sea bed
68. See n. 32
69. M.-A. Marié, Ammien Marcellin Histoire Tome V (1984), 28-9 and ad loc
70. R. S. O. Tomlin, 'Ammianus Marcellinus, 26.4.5-6', CQ 29 (1979), 470-8
71. C. J. Classen, 'Greek and Roman in Ammianus Marcellinus' History', Museum Africum 1 (1972), 39-47
72. T. Mommsen, 'Ammians Geographica', Hermes 16 (1881), 602-36
73. See Sabbah, op. cit. (n. 3), 556
74. See n. 89
75. and most recently restated by G. Sabbah, 'Ammien Marcellin, Libanius, Antioche et la date des derniers livres des Res gestae', Cassiodorus 3 (1997), 89-116
76. W. Fornara, 'The prefaces of Ammianus Marcellinus', in M. Griffith and D. Mastronarde (eds), Cabinet of the Muses: Studies in Honor of T. G. Rosenmeyer (1990), 163-72
77. Paschoud, op. cit. (n. 5), 158