AMBROSE, bishop of Milan, AD 374–97, formerly governor of Aemilia-Liguria. Author of many exegetical writings, works on the sacraments, on the duties of clergy, on virginity, sermons, hymns and letters. Translation, Fathers of the Church, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd ser., X and Library of Christian Classics V, also in Fathers of the Church.
AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS, historian, author of the Res Gestae, in Latin, finished in Rome in the early 390s and covering the period AD 96–378 (only the part from AD 354 survives). There is an excellent translation (abridged) available in Penguin paperback, which has a very good general introduction; otherwise text and translation in Loeb Classical Library. The most important secondary work on Ammianus is by John Matthews, The Roman Empire of Ammianus (London, 1989); on his language and mental outlook see Robin Seager, Ammianus Marcellinus. Seven Studies in his Language and Thought (Columbia, Miss., 1986) and R. L. Rike, Apex Omnium: Religion in the Res Gestae of Ammianus Marcellinus (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1987).
ANONYMUS VALESIANUS, pars prior (= Origo Constantini imperatoris), short biography of Constantine, basically late fourth century, written by a pagan with additions based on the Christian history of Orosius. Translation in Loeb edition of Ammianus, vol. III.
AUGUSTINE, bishop of Hippo, North Africa, AD 395–430. Author of the Confessions (c. AD 400, 13 books), of which the translation with notes by Henry Chadwick (Oxford, 1991) is recommended; City of God (AD 413–26, 22 books), and many letters, sermons and treatises, including the De Doctrina Christiana (finished AD 426). Translations: Confessions and City of God are in Penguin; City of God is also in Everyman, see also Loeb Classical Library. Augustine’s works as a whole are translated in several series, e.g. the Library of the Fathers, Library of Christian Classics, Fathers of the Church and Ancient Christian Writers. See Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo (London, 1967) (with date charts of Augustine’s writings and notes of translations); Henry Chadwick, Augustine (London, 1986).
AUSONIUS, c. 310–93/4, rhetor from Bordeaux, tutor to the young Gratian, and subsequently Praetorian Prefect and consul. Author of many poems in classical metres, including the Mosella (on the River Moselle) and a set of poems commemorating the professors of Bordeaux, his friends and colleagues. Works translated in Loeb Classical Library. There are selections from Ausonius, Claudian and Prudentius in The Last Poets of Imperial Rome (Penguin). Major critical edition with notes and introduction, but no translation, by R. Green, The Works of Ausonius (Oxford, 1991); see also H. Sivan, Ausonius of Bordeaux (London, 1993).
BASIL, brother of Gregory of Nyssa and Macrina, friend of Gregory of Nazianzus, studied at Caesarea, Constantinople and Athens, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, AD 370–9. Author of homilies on Hexaemeron (six days of creation), ascetic works including rules for monastic life, On the Holy Spirit, Address to the Young on how they might Benefit from Greek Literature, letters. Translations in Loeb Classical Library, Fathers of the Church, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers II, VIII.
CALENDAR OF AD 354, known only through a lost Carolingian copy, valuable source for public festivals and iconography. See M. R. Salzman, On Roman Time. The Codex-Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1991).
CLAUDIAN, Latin poet from Alexandria, panegyrist of Stilicho and author of hexameter poems on imperial occasions and political events, as well as of invectives against the eastern ministers Eutropius and Rufinus. Translation in Loeb Classical Library; see also W. Barr, Claudian’s Panegyric on the Fourth Consulship of Honorius (1981), and see under Ausonius. See in general Alan Cameron, Claudian (Oxford, 1970).
Codex Theodosianus (CTh.), collection of imperial laws made in Constantinople under Theodosius II. English translation by Clyde Pharr (Princeton, 1952). See Tony Honoré, ‘The Making of the Theodosian Code’, Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte 103, röm. Abt. (1986), 133–222.
De Rebus Bellicis, anonymous Latin treatise on military matters in the form of a letter to the reigning emperors, probably Valentinian and Valens, AD 368. The MSS. contain illustrations of the ingenious inventions recommended by the author. Translation and discussion in M. W. C. Hassall and R. I. Ireland, eds., De Rebus Bellicis (Oxford, BAR, 1979); see also E. A. Thompson, A Roman Reformer and Inventor (Oxford, 1952).
DESERT FATHERS, collections of saying and lives of the eastern ascetics, easily accessible through the translation by Benedicta Ward, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (London, 1975) and The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers (Oxford, 1975); N. Russell, The Lives of the Desert Fathers (London, 1980), with introduction by B. Ward, and see also Helen Waddell, The Desert Fathers (New York, 1936). See also under Palladius.
EPHREM THE SYRIAN, c. 306–73, Syriac Christian writer and theologian from Nisibis, who later moved to Edessa; author of Carmina Nisibena, Hymns against Julian and many other works in Syriac, of which a high proportion were soon translated into Greek. Translations by S. P. Brock, The Harp of the Spirit. 18 Poems of St. Ephrem (London, 1983) and Kathleen McVey, Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York, 1989). The Hymns against Julian I-IV are included in S. N. C. Lieu, ed., The Emperor Julian. Panegyric and Polemic, TTH (2nd ed., Liverpool, 1989). See R. Murray, Symbols of Church and Kingdom. A Study in Early Syriac Tradition (Cambridge, 1975).
EUNAPIUS, pagan Greek historian from Sardis, AD 349–c. 404. Author of Lives of the Sophists (Loeb Classical Library) and a history from AD 270 to 404, in two editions, later used by Zosimus, but surviving only in fragments; both the nature of the two editions and whether Ammianus may have used Eunapius or Eunapius Ammianus are disputed. Translation and discussion, R. C. Blockley, The Fragmentary Classicising Historians of the Later Roman Empire I–II (Liverpool, 1981–3).
EUSEBIUS, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, biblical scholar and historian of Constantine, d. AD 338/9. Author of Church History (Penguin edition); Tricennalian Oration, trans, and comm. by H. A. Drake, In Praise of Constantine (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1976) ; Life of Constantine, translated in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers I, Averil Cameron and Stuart Hall (Oxford, forth-coming); Chronicle, surviving only in Armenian translation, but translated into Latin by Jerome; also apologetic works (Preparation for the Gospel, Demonstration of the Gospel, Theophany). See T. D. Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius (Cambridge, Mass., 1981).
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, son of bishop of Nazianzus in Cappadocia, highly educated like Basil, resisted ordination and was later unwillingly raised to be bishop of Sasima by Basil, and was bishop of Constantinople in 380; later resigned, died c. 390. Highly accomplished rhetorician, author of funeral orations on Basil, his sister Gorgonia and his parents, theological writings (including Five Theological Orations), letters and poems, some auto-biographical. Select orations and letters in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers II, VII.
GREGORY OF NYSSA, younger brother of Basil and Macrina, bishop of Nyssa, deposed for incompetence and restored, continues Basil’s theology and becomes leading ecclesiastic after Basil’s death, died c. AD 394. Author of theological, mystical and ascetic works including Catechetical Orations, On Virginity, Life of Moses, trans. E. Ferguson and A. J. Malherbe (New York, 1978), Life of Macrina, English trans, by V. Woods Callahan, Saint Gregory of Nyssa. Ascetical Works, Fathers of the Church 58 (Washington, DC, 1967). Translations of many of his works in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers II, V.
Historia Augusta, collection of often scurrilous imperial biographies up to the reign of Diocletian, starting with Hadrian, supposedly composed by six different authors writing under Constantine. Now generally thought to be the work of one author in late fourth-century Rome. Penguin translation (Lives of the Later Caesars), with A. Birley’s article in T. A. Dorey, ed., Latin Biography (London, 1967), 113–38; text and translation in Loeb Classical Library. See R. Syme, Ammianus and the Historia Augusta (Oxford, 1968); T. D. Barnes, The Sources of the Historia Augusta (Brussels, 1978), and for computer analysis, I. Marriott, ‘The authorship of the Historia Augusta: two computer studies’, JRS 69 (1979), 65–77.
IAMBLICHUS, Neoplatonist philosopher at Apamea in Syria under Constantine, author of On the Pythagorean Life (translation with notes by Gillian Clark, Translated Texts for Historians (Liverpool, 1989); On the Mysteries, trans. T. Taylor (2nd ed., London, 1895).
JEROME, AD 342–419. Monk, ascetic and scholar, in Rome 382–4, later set up monastery at Bethlehem. Prolific author and translator of Greek works, including works by Origen and Eusebius’s Chronicle, also of the Hebrew Bible (Jerome’s version is known as the Vulgate); author of exegetical and dogmatic works, often polemical in tone, On Famous Men, homilies, Lives of the hermits, letters. Selected letters translated in Loeb Classical Library. See J. N. Kelly, Jerome (London, 1975).
JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, pupil of Libanius, priest at Antioch and bishop of Constantinople, AD 398, twice deposed, and finally exiled AD 404, d. 407. Perhaps the greatest of Christian preachers, and author of many sermons as well as biblical commentaries and other works. Some sermons trans, by S. Neill, Chrysostom and his Message (London, 1962); works in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers I, IX-XIV. Address on Vainglory and the Right Way for Parents to Bring up their Children, trans, in M. L. W. Laistner, Christianity and Pagan Culture in the Later Roman Empire (New York, 1951). See generally F. Young, From Nicaea to Chalcedon (London, 1983), 143–59.
JULIAN, emperor (AD 361–3), author of speeches and other works in Greek, including Against the Galilaeans, Caesares, Hymn to King Helios, Misopogon (‘Beard-hater’, on which see Maud Gleason, ‘Festive satire: Julian’s Misopogon and the New Year at Antioch’, JRS 76 (1986), 106–19). Julian’s works are available in the Loeb Classical Library; see also R. Browning, The Emperor Julian (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1976) and G. W. Bowersock, Julian the Apostate (Cambridge, Mass., 1976) , with Gore Vidal’s novel, Julian (London, 1964). S. C. Lieu, The Emperor Julian. Panegyric and Polemic, 2nd ed. (Liverpool, 1989), is a useful collection of sources about Julian in translation.
LACTANTIUS, Christian convert and former rhetor at Nicomedia, later tutor to Constantine’s eldest son Crispus. For his work, On the Deaths of the Persecutors (De Mortibus Persecutorum, DMP), perhaps written c. AD 314, see the translation and commentary by J. Creed (Oxford, 1984).
LIBANIUS, (AD 314–93), pagan rhetor from Antioch, taught at Antioch, Constantinople and elsewhere and had both Christian and pagan pupils. Author of many orations; see A. F. Norman, ed., Libanius’s Autobiography (Or. 1) (Oxford, 1965), and Loeb Classical Library (selections).
MARK THE DEACON, Life of Porphyry of Gaza, life of Porphyry, Bishop of Gaza, AD 396, surviving in Greek (ed. with French trans, by H. Grégoire and M-A. Kugener, Paris, 1930) and in Georgian translation from Syriac. Some scholars believe that the original was written in Syriac and at a much later date than the events it describes, but see P. Chuvin, A Chronicle of the Last Pagans (Cambridge, Mass., 1990), 76–8, 89–90 and notes.
MELANIA THE YOUNGER, c. AD 385–439, rich Roman aristocrat, granddaughter of Melania the Elder, wife of Pinianus, convert to asceticism; subject of Life in both Latin and Greek versions; see Elizabeth A. Clark, The Life of Melania the Younger (intro., trans, and commentary) (New York, 1984).
Notitia Dignitatum, official list of civil and military offices and establishments, the eastern part dating from c. AD 395, the western from c. AD 430, ed. O. Seeck (Eng. trans. W. Fairley, Philadelphia, 1899). See R. Goodburn and R. Bartholomew, eds., Aspects of the Notitia Dignitatum (Oxford, 1976) ; J. H. Ward, ‘The Notitia Dignitatum’, Latomus 33 (1974), 397–434. For some of the splendid manuscript illustrations, see Tim Cornell and John Matthews, Atlas of the Roman World (Oxford, 1982), 202–3.
OPTATUS, bishop of Milevis in North Africa, wrote a history of the Donatist schism, AD 365, attaching an Appendix of documents from the reign of Constantine. English translation by O. R. Vassall-Phillips (London, 1917).
OROSIUS, author of Historia adversus Paganos, covering the period from Adam to AD 417, an apologetic history of Rome, emphasizing the disasters that had taken place under pagan rule.
PALLADIUS, author of Lausiac History, monastic collection in Greek made c. AD 420, English translation by R. T. Meyer, Ancient Christian Writers 34 (1965).
Panegyrici Latini, a collection of mainly anonymous Latin panegyrics made in Gaul, which includes Pliny’s panegyric to Trajan (AD 100), but otherwise covers the period from Diocletian to Theodosius I. French translation in Budé edition, and see the English translation of Pacatus’s panegyric on Theodosius by C. V. Nixon, Translated Texts for Historians (Liverpool, 1987).
PAULINUS OF NOLA, b. Bordeaux, c. AD 355, pupil of Ausonius, renounced his property and settled at Nola, where he became bishop c. AD 410, d. 431. Author of poems (some trans. J. Lindsay, London, 1948) and letters (trans, in Ancient Christian Writers, 35–6). See W. H. C. Frend, ‘The two worlds of Paulinus of Nola’, in J. W. Binns, ed., Latin Literature of the Fourth Century (London, 1974), 100–133.
PORPHYRY, Neoplatonist philosopher and pupil of Plotinus, late third century, whose work Against the Christians was destroyed by order of Constantine. Author of a Life of Plotinus, translated in Loeb ed. of Plotinus, a Life of Pythagoras, trans. M. Hadas and M. Smith, Heroes and Gods. Spiritual Biographies in Antiquity (London, 1965), Letter to his wife Marcella, trans, with notes by Kathleen O’Brien Wicker (Atlanta, Georgia, 1987).
RUFINUS, b. AD 345 at Aquileia, translator of Greek authors including Origen, Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus; translated Historia Monachorum from Greek original; translated and continued the Church History of Eusebius, basing the latter part on the lost work by Gelasius of Caesarea. Translation, Ancient Christian Writers 20, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers III.
SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS (c. AD 430–80), b. in Aquitaine, local landowner, became bishop of Auvergne in Clermont-Ferrand. Author of poems in classical metres, and nine books of letters; translation in Loeb Classical Library.
SOCRATES, lawyer and church historian in Constantinople, 440s, author of a church history in seven books continuing Eusebius. Translation in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers II.
SOZOMEN, like Socrates, lawyer and church historian in Constantinople, 440s, author of a church history in nine books continuing Eusebius. Translation in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers II.
SYMMACHUS, Q. Aurelius Symmachus, b. c. AD 345, leading pagan senator, procos. of Africa, AD 373–4, prefect of the city of Rome and consul. Author of speeches and ten books of letters. Translation of Relationes dealing with the Altar of Victory, AD 384, in R. H. Barrow, Prefect and Emperor (Oxford, 1973); there is no English translation of the letters, but see the Budé ed.; there is an Italian commentary underway. See J. F. Matthews, ‘The Letters of Symmachus’, in Binns, ed., Latin Literature of the Fourth Century, 58–99.
SYNESIUS (c. AD 370-c. 413), landowner from Cyrenaica, pupil of Hypatia in Alexandria, later became bishop of Ptolemais, c. 410. Author of (Greek) letters, hymns and treatises, some semiphilosophical: De Regno, De Providentia, Dion, On Dreams, and a speech On Baldness. Translation by A. Fitzgerald (1926, 1930). See in general Jay Bregman, Synesius of Cyrene: Philosopher-Bishop (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1982); Alan Cameron and Jacqueline Long, with Lee Sherry, Barbarians and Politics at the Court of Arcadius (Berkeley, 1992); however, the dates and the interpretation of some of Synesius’s works are much disputed.
THEODORET, bishop of Cyrrhus in northern Syria, AD 423–66, and Christian controversialist. Author of many letters (Eng. trans, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers II, III, repr. 1979); R. M. Price, A History of the Monks of Syria by Theodoret of Cyrrhus (Kalamazoo, 1985); Ecclesiastical History, trans. in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers II, III.
VEGETIUS, author of De Re Militari (‘On military affairs’), late fourth century. Trans. by J. Clark (1944). See W. Goffart, ‘The date and purpose of Vegetius, De re militari’, Traditio 33 (1977), 65 ff.; T. D. Barnes, ‘The date and identity of Vegetius’, Phoenix 33 (1979), 254 ff.
ZOSIMUS, pagan historian, writing in the late fifth or early sixth century, author of a New History, up to the year AD 410, closely dependent on the lost history of Eunapius and the fifth-century historian Olympiodorus of Thebes. English translation with short notes by R. Ridley (Canberra, 1982).
B. Mcbain, ‘An annotated bibliography (to 1980) of sources for late antiquity in English translation’, Byzantine Studies 10 (1983), 88–109; 223–47, covers the period c. AD 284–602.