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military experience, however, Ammianus’ descriptions of battles and warfare owe more to rhetorical tradition than to specialized knowledge, even if military historians judging in the context of the rhetorical tradition have usually been favorable to Ammianus’ presentation (Austin 1979; Crump 1975). A recent study of Ammianus’ digression on siege engines, for example, finds that the historian has relied on written sources rather than firsthand information (23.4; den Hengst 1999).
    Ammianus’ use of the term “Graecus” is even more controversial. If “soldier” is understood as apologetic, a mere soldier, then “Greek” might be understood in the same way, as a mere Greek having ventured upon a major work in Latin. Yet it is preferable to concentrate upon the almost paradoxical contrast between the words soldier and Greek, words which reveal the two distinctive qualities Ammianus brings to the writing of history: on the one hand, the soldier, the man of action and involvement, and on the other, the Greek, the learned scholar and master of literature. This sense of “Greek” comes out clearly in Ammianus’ reference to the historian Timagenes, whom he describes as a Greek “in diligence and language” (15.9.2). Clearly the term has a cultural as well as a linguistic significance in Ammianus’ epilogue as well. “Graecus” may also have a religious meaning, if we understand Ammianus to be translating the Greek “Hellene,” which often means “pagan.”
    Ammianus’ blending of Greek and Latin culture throughout his work is one of the most intriguing features of the Res Gestae . For a Greek to choose to write in Latin is surprising in itself, despite the fact that Latin was in many ways the language of Ammianus’ own world and the world of the army and the court portrayed in the Res Gestae . Ammianus reinforces his connections to Latin historiography in several ways. The choice of 96 as the starting point for a history that primarily covers fourth-century events must be understood as an attempt to link his own work to the work of Tacitus, which concludes in that year. Indeed, given that Tacitus’ Annals and Histories were read as a single work in thirty books in late antiquity (according to Jerome in comm. ad Zach . 3.14), perhaps Ammianus’ choice of thirty-one books represents a conscious attempt to supersede his predecessor. Ammianus’ work alludes to other Roman historians, especially Sallust, in numerous places, and also demonstrates particular fondness for Cicero (Fornara 1992b: 427–38). In contrast, Ammianus shows a surprisingly poor knowledge of Athenian oratory in his comments on the subject, and his claim of direct knowledge of Herodotus and Thucydides may be doubted (Fornara 1992b: 421–7). Ammianus shows great interest in the city of Rome and the narrative returns regularly to events there, although the city no longer played an important role in the fourth-century empire. This anachronistic attention to the city perhaps served to emphasize his links to early Latin historiography where the city played a central part. Ammianus shows his reverence toward the city in hisaccount of the visit of the emperor Constantius to Rome in 357 (16.10; Matthews 1989: 231–5; Classen 1988; Duval 1970; Klein 1979). The city is the “home of empire and all the virtues,” and its temples, stadiums, and forums are portrayed as divine and exalted (16.10.3; Harrison 1999).
    Ammianus’ Greek background is also constantly on display. His identification with the Greek language is evident in the numerous passages where he glosses Greek terms with the first person plural, such as his discussion of “nighttime visions, which we call ‘phantasies’” (14.11.18; den Boeft 1992: 12). Certain linguistic peculiarities of the Res Gestae can best be explained with the understanding that the author is “thinking in Greek.” Den Boeft explores the high frequency of participial use in Ammianus, a phenomenon associated