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The hypothesis for this research project is: Ammianus’ treatment of the emotion of anger reveals as much, if not more, about his education, values, beliefs, personality, than it does about the people he writes about and that he sees in emotion a major causative factor. This research contained within aims to contribute to a greater depth of understanding of the role of the key emotion of anger within the individual and collective lives of the characters as portrayed by Ammianus Marcellinus and how he uses them to influence the reader and colour his narrative. Scholars now tend to examine Ammianus to discern or evaluate the historical reliability of his authorship. Thus there is scope for examining how Ammianus shapes his narrative and tries to influence the reader by his portraits of individuals and collective characters. Although this approach seems an obvious one, the particular value of this thesis and of its contribution to late Roman historiography is that no one has hitherto done this in an extended and thorough way. While we welcome the importance Ammianus gives to emotions as historical agents, his treatment and representations of them have idiosyncratic features that crucially affect any assessment of him as a subjective observer and reporter of Rome and its past. Making the study keyword based reduces the need to make (possibly erroneous) inferences about whether it is really anger or some related emotion that we are dealing with. This has then lead to the compilation of lists of relevant anger words in Latin that relate to the individuals and groups who are the basis for my study.1 Following this analysis of the use of anger by Ammianus Marcellinus through a careful study of his Res Gestae and the characterisations he incorporated within it is hoped that we can better understand the discourse of Ammianus, by unearthing the bias, the propagandist elements and the general trends of his portrayals, through keywords that refer directly to anger. In this way it is anticipated that we can better understand the purpose behind many of these representations. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2008

Bibliography: p. 294-339. / 2 v. in 1 (xiv, 339 leaves, xxiv, 174 leaves) : ill. (some col.), plans ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2005

The economic development of Greece and Rome hinged directly on the ability of commercial vessels to transport large volumes of goods across the Mediterranean and Black Sea. Archaeology has revealed the sizes, construction methods and cargos of these ships, but the navigational techniques that were employed to direct them from port to port remain unclear and elusive. In ancient literature, the oft-repeated themes of storm, shipwreck and death at sea led to the popular assumption among scholars that seafarers developed habits to minimize their exposure to this hostile element--hugging the shore to avoid the open sea, putting in at night, sailing only in summer, and using 'seafaring manuals' to help guide their way. While several recent studies have made some strides in overturning this overly simplistic view by highlighting aspects of navigation in certain areas and in certain periods, the 'standard model' lingers in both scholarly and popular imagination. This study offers a comprehensive review of the scattered textual and archaeological evidence pertaining to ancient seafaring and navigation, and a major reinterpretation of ancient commercial navigation in both periods. Chapters 2-3 explore the parameters of the maritime environment (coasts, winds, currents and visibility) and the human responses to them in the form of ships, seasonal rhythms and maritime corridors. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss the ways in which Greek and Roman sailing masters accounted for the fundamental requirements of navigation--the determination of direction, position, speed and distance--using wind roses as a 'compass' and various stars and star groups at night. Chapter 6 treats the question of whether seafarers used written guides or experience, or both, to help determine their position. Chapter 7 explores the historical figure of the sailing master himself and integrates a wide range of evidence to reconstruct the navigational routines of the crews of Alexandrian grain ships during the Roman imperial era. My research concludes that both coastal and open-sea sailing were matters of routine in the commercial sector, that commercial seafarers did indeed sail at night and employ the stars to deduce navigational information, that winter sailing was a widespread practice, and that crews employed navigational strategies to weather storms, usually successfully. / text

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The aim of this dissertation is to explain the meaning of concordia surveying the historical context in which it emerged. The thesis concentrates on the period 63--43 B.C. because it is in this crucial period that the concept achieves its most articulate and influential defence by the Roman orator, statesman, and philosopher, Marcus Tullius Cicero. My intention is to review the important writings and speeches of Cicero and to situate them in the political struggles in which he was implicated. / By placing the concept of concordia in this political context, a clearer picture emerges than is available in the current literature about how Cicero promoted, defended, and skillfully redefined the concept of concordia in order to achieve his political aims. What emerges are three identifiable meanings of the concept of concordia . The first is the longstanding conventional Roman republican idea of concordia as unity, friendship, and agreement. The second is what Cicero called the concordia ordinum, an innovative idea of concordia as a harmony or coalition of the two Roman orders of the senate and equites. The third is the idea of concordia as a consensus omnium bonorum---what Cicero called concordia civium or concordia civitatis . This idea represents an important shift in the thinking of the Roman orator who began to see the survival of the republic as depending on a consensus that went beyond the coalition of the senate and equites.

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