From the Bryn Mawr Classical Review, a deservedly fulsome review of Gavin Kelly's Ammianus Marcellinus: The Allusive Historian:
Kelly also creates a via media in
scholarship on Ammianus between the two dominant voices of the last two
decades, John Matthews and Timothy Barnes, the former largely taking
Ammianus at his word as a starting point for a larger exploration of
the world the historian lived in, the latter presenting Ammianus as a
writer of fiction whose historical account was unreliable. Instead, Kelly appraises Ammianus on his own ground, as a writer of
history according to the ancient literary conventions of the genre, and
not following (dubious) modern criteria of objectivity and veracity.
Full article here. I was fortunate enough to read some of the book in early form and it is very good indeed. Definitely worth harassing a library to buy.
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