SOURCE: Thompson, E. A. “Ammianus as an Historian.” In The Historical Work of Ammianus Marcellinus, pp. 121-33. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1947.

In the following excerpt, Thompson evaluates Ammianus as an historian, commenting that he is the best of his time period.

Some idea of his enormous stature may be obtained by contrasting him with the other Latin historians—if they deserve the name—of his day. Latin historiography at the end of the fourth century consisted of meagre epitomes or uncritical and insignificant collections of anecdotes. Perhaps the illiberal tendency of the various governments of the age was one of the several factors which inclined to deter men from attempting detailed and really revealing studies, especially of their own times. At any rate, with this poverty of contemporary historians Ammianus had little sympathy, although he might pay a slight compliment to a man whom he personally respected...