Ammianus Marcellinus

Born around 330, Ammianus served as a soldier in the Roman army before turning historian. He set out to chronicle Rome's story from Emperor Nerva's accession in 96 through the death of Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378, writing in Latin despite his Greek background. The work, known as the Res gestae, was vast, but only the sections covering 353 to 378 survived antiquity's winnowing. He died sometime between 391 and 400, leaving behind the penultimate major historical account from the ancient world—the last before Procopius picked up the thread.