L’image de la Perse et des Perses occupe une place importante dans l’œuvre d’Ammien Marcellin, un Syrien hellénisé du IVe siècle, auteur d’un ouvrage historique écrit en latin. La présente recherche, qui replace le sujet dans le reste de la tradition romaine et la tradition arabo-persane, s’articule en trois parties : « Ammien, une source majeure ? », « L’image de la Perse chez Ammien : l’art de la description », et enfin « Les Perses dans le récit du conflit romano-perse de 354 à 378 : l’art du portrait et de la narration ». Il en ressort qu’Ammien a adopté un point de vue romain, tout en se distinguant de la tradition historiographique romaine antérieure. Il se démarque également de la tradition arabo-persane. Ammien, auteur atypique de par ses origines et du sujet qu’il traite, l’est aussi par son écriture. / The image of Persia and Persians occupies an important place in the work of Ammianus Marcellinus, a hellenized Syrian of the 4th century, author of a historical written in latin. The present research, which replaces the subject in the rest of the roman tradition and the arabo-persian tradition, is articulated in three parts : « Ammianus, a major source ? », « The image of Persia at Ammianus : the art of description », and finally, « The Persians on the account of the Romano-Persia conflict from 354 to 378 : the art of the portrait and the narration ». This reveals that Ammianus adopted a roman point of view, while being distinguished from the former roman historiographical tradition. He also dissociates arabo-persian tradition. Ammianus, author atypical from his origins and the subject which it treats, is also by its wrinting.

This paper looks at traditions and modernities in terms of a spectrum representation and thus challenges the previously accepted notion of tradition and modernity as an either/or matter where tradition is seen to hold obstacles assumed to block progression towards modernity. With this in mind, it considers Ebrahim Hussein´s title for his play Wakati Ukuta (Time is a Wall) and Euphrase Kezilahabi´s novel Gamba la Nyoka (The snake´s skin) to illustrate the idea of multiple modernities where the relationship between tradition and modernity is seen in terms of tension between cultural homogenisation and cultural heterogenisation where various ´scapes´ containing traditions are inflected by historical, linguistic and political situatedness of different actors. Key themes are discussed in this paper displaying the indigenised ethnoscape of East Africa with various modernities and the different tensions this can produce in view of long-standing traditions. Individualism is the prevailing theme in the emergence of modernity. With this in mind, extramarital relationships, foreign behaviours, education and age/generational differences are discussed with reference to the two literary texts. These themes exemplify the thematic trajectory of the spectrum representation of traditions and modernities in Swahili literature, showing belonging to the present but also awareness of the past. This paper concludes that modernities should no longer be seen as a foreign invasion aiming to eradicate tradition but as metropolises that can be indigenised and incorporated into existing traditions. The observations in this paper demonstrate that the link between traditions and modernities is not a direct transition from one to the other but one of more complex affiliation. This paper lays foundations for broader research into this relationship and gives new insight into the illustration and critique of various texts.