5 XII 2024 Gavin Kelly (University of Edinburgh), Reinterpreting Ammianus Marcellinus: a new translation and a new edition

The Res gestae of Ammianus Marcellinus was transmitted through two closely-related Carolingian manuscripts, the better of which was lost in the sixteenth century and survives only in fragments and indirect evidence. The text is frequently garbled or lacunose and any edition needs often to make dozens of corrections per page. Ammianus’ high-flown prose offers further challenges to interpretation. In my talk I shall introduce my new English translation of Ammianus’ history, undertaken for the Landmark series in collaboration with Michael Kulikowski, and the new edition of the text which will become my primary focus as soon as the translation is complete. I shall touch on the translation’s aim of providing an aesthetically satisfying and comprehensible version of a Latin classic in a new language; but the primary focus will be on the relationship of translation and editing in the context of challenging and poorly transmitted text: in particular the importance of translation as a heuristic tool for learning where textual problems in the paradosis lie. The bulk of the talk will consist of discussions of challenging passages.