Woloch, Michael

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ARCTOS ACTA PHILOLOGICA FENNICA VOL. XXVII HELSINKI 1993 HELSINGFORS MAARIT KAIMIO CHRISTER BRUUN MAARIT KAIMIO IIRO KAJANTO WOLFGANG KUHOFF BENGT LOFSTEDT INDEX Henrik Zilliacus in memoriam "Berichtigungsliste" to G. Fomi's Posthumous New List of the Provenances of Roman Legionaries The Protagonist in Greek Tragedy Analysis of a Verse parentatio: Johannes Ihre's Funeral Oration in Memory of Tors ten Rudeen Die Beziehungen des Romischen Reiches zum Volksstamm der Baquaten in Mauretanien '-Weitere Notizen zu Justus Lipsius' Briefen LEENA PIETILA-CASTREN Incisioni e graffiti su ceramica a vemice nera di Ficana, settore 6b OLLI SALOMIES JURA SIHVOLA HEIKKI SOLIN ASKO TIMONEN G. MICHAEL WOLOCH De novis libris iudicia On the Interpretation of Epigraphical Filiations of the Type L.ff Why Does Contemplation Not Fit Well into Aristotle's tUOUtJ!OVta? Analecta epigraphica CL - CLIV Emperor's "ars recusandi" in Biographical Narrative Ammianus, Alpine Passes and Maps Index librorum in hoc volumine recensorum Libri nobis missi 7 11 19 35 55 73 79 95 103 123 133 149 155 217 221 AMMIANUS, ALPINE PASSES AND MAPS G. MICHAEL WOLOCH Ammianus' depiction of three Alpine passes when one goes northwest from Italy (Res Gestae 15,10) is quite difficult for the reader. I According to De Proctor, Ammianus confused the Maritime, Graian and Pennine Alps.2 The main Roman passes in their order from north to south were the Great St. Bemard (Pennine Alps), the Little St. Bemard (Graian Alps) and the Mont Genevre (Cottian Alps). There was no main pass in the Maritime Alps other than the coast road. Ammianus' detailed description of the pass at Mt. Genevre (15,10,3-6) is generally held to indicate autopsy, and the present writer agrees.3 In 355, Ammianus accompanied his commander Ursicinus from Milan to Cologne (15,5,24). About the Mt. Genevre Pass our author said, "Et licet haec quam diximus uiam media sit et compendiaria, magisque celebris, tamen etiam aliae multo antea temporibus sunt constructae diversis" ("And although this road which I have described is the middle one, the short cut, and the more frequented, yet there are also others, constructed long before at various times" 15,10,8).4 In 15,10,2 he said that the Mt. Genevre route was between other passes, but what he meant by "middle" in 15,10,8 is not obvious. Ammianus called the other two passes the passes of Hercules and of Hannibal. Hercules' trip was also mentioned in 15,9,6. Our author implied that Hercules built the Graian Alps before he went to Spain (15,10,9): "ad Geryonem extinguendum (ut relatum est) ... lenius gradiens" ("when travel-ling leisurely to destroy Geryon ... [as I reported]"). This is the wrong direct 1 For these passes, see the maps in H. Bengtson et al., Grosser historischer Weltatlas6 I, Munich 1978, 40; D. van Berchem, Les routes et l'histoire, Geneva 1982, cited as "Routes", fig. 8 on p. 186 and D. Proctor, Hannibal's March in History, Oxford 1971, cited as "March", endpaper following p. 221. 2 Proctor, March, 196-197. 3 The present writer has discussed Ammianus' trip through the Mt. Genavre pass in "Ammianus' Route to Cologne," Arctos 26 (1992) 137-140. 4 J.C. Rolfe (transl.), Ammianus Marcellinus I, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Mass. 1935. This translation is also used below. 150 " I \ \ " I I I \ ' I l t, \ I I I I \ -, I ,. ... I \ ,. ... "'" ', ' L' ,"I I _ .... ..... ' I I I \ ' .... \ " l " 4 /1 Mt. Cenis ~ ..... \.,., ........... , .t'l ' · ...... ~ ' ' ~l ' .... - ... '~ ........ ., ... --"'lrr..'-1 .. , I I I I \ I I I I I I /c ... - l I I I I I I I I \ I I " .... G. Michael Woloch " ' ' \ ' ' ,. ... ', I '"'-"" I I I I ' " ,'--, /"' I ... I t' I , __ .,.J,, ' I \ ' \ ' ... .,./ M A R I T I M E I \ \ ( ALPS I \ \ \ \ " .... ..... ________ _, \ I 1 I I \ ' /-----\ I ... I "' PASSES 1. Col du Clapier 2. Great St.Bernard 3. Little St. Bernard 4.· Mt. Cenis 5. Mt. Genevre 100 km -+ Ammianus, Alpine Passes and Maps 151 ion for Hercules' trip. 5 In the same passage he referred to Monaco, and this would indicate that Hercules also visited the Maritime Alps. He described the Pennine Alps as being the same as Hercules' Alps, but immediately afterwards, he connected them with Hannibal's trip from Spain to Italy (15,10,10). A passage from the work of Diodorus Siculus might cast some light on the problem because it is clearer. Diodorus, after mentioning Heracles' (Hercules') trip, placed Heracles at Alesia and then said, "Heracles then made his way from Celtica to Italy, and as he traversed the mountain pass through the Alps he made a highway out of the route, which was rough and almost impassible, with the result that it can now be passed by armies and baggage trains" (Diodorus 4,19).6 Diodorus would accord with either the Little St. Bemard Pass or the Mt. Genevre. Both of these were maintained and improved in Roman times. S.C. Bakhuizen locates Heracles' pass for the ancients at the Little St. Bemard because of the etymology of "Graiae" .1 In spite of Ammianus' confusion, the Little St. Bernard, not far northwest of the Mt. Genevre, was probably what he meant. Our author was relying on a literary source. 8 Scholars today tend to locate Hannibal's pass at the Col du Clapier or the nearby Mont Cenis Pass (between the Graian and Cottian Alps).9 These passes were unfamiliar to the Romans in Hannibal's time, and they were not heavily used later. The Mt. Genevre Pass is not in the middle between one 5 On the legend and the extant ancient sources, see P. Grimal, Dictionnaire de la mythologie grecque et romaine3, Paris 1963, 194. 6 C.H. Oldfather (transl.), Diodorus Siculus Il, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Mass. 1935. 7 S.C. Bakhuizen, "Graia, Gn~es, Gres, Grecs", La Beotie antique, Lyons-St. Etienne 1985, 185-186. On Heracles' pass for the ancients, also see Van Berchem, Routes 188-189. 8 The sources for Ammianus 15,9-12 were analyzed by T. Mommsen in "Ammians Geographica", Bermes 16 (1881), cited as "Geographica", 602-636 and W. Sontheimer, "Der Exkurs iiber Gallien bei Ammianus Marcellinus (XV,9-12)", Klio 20 (1926), cited as "Exkurs", 19-53. P. de Jonge provided a summary and critique of them in Philological and Historical Commentary on Ammianus Marcellinus XV,6-13, Groningen I Djakarta 1953, cited as "Commentary, XV,6-13", 48-49. In 15,9,6 Ammianus tells us that he questioned local people and viewed inscriptions in Gaul about Hercules (both infrequent types of sources for our author), but this information does not refer the Hercules' pass. On Ammianus' use of inscriptions, see G. Sabbah, La Methode d'Ammien Marcellin, Paris 1978, cited as "Methode", 133. 9 Proctor places Hannibal's route most probably at the Col du Clapier (March 216), as does Van Berchem, "comme on s'accorde aujourd'hui" (Routes 110, 189). On the modem scholarship see F.W. Walbank, A Historical Commentary on Polybius I, Oxford 1957, 382-393; 11, 1967, 637; Ill, 1979, 769. The Mt. Cenis Pass or the Col du Clapier is in accord with Polybius' description in 3,50. For a map of them see A. Dirkzwager, Strabo iiber Gallia Narbonensis, Leiden 1975, 33. 152 G. Michael Woloch of them and the Little St. Bemard, for they lie between the Little St. Bemard and the Mt. Genevre. Ammianus placed the Durance River on the Italian side of the Alps and said that Hannibal followed it (15,10,11). The Durance is actually in France, and the closest pass to that river is the Mt. Genevre. In spite of the incorrect location of the Durance, W. Sontheimer said that the Mt. Genevre Pass was "doubtless (nicht zu zweifeln)" what Ammianus meant.1 0 It is likely that Sontheimer was right, and this time Ammianus counted the same pass twice. Sontheimer improved on T. Mommsen by positing a map or maps among the sources for 15,10-11.11 The present writer suggests that in addition to his literary sources, Ammianus could have used a map or maps for 15,10 if the passes and the Durance were mislabeled or not shown. The Peutinger Table is the only ancient map that we have for compa-rison. Now in the Nationalbibliothek at Vienna, it is a twelfth or thirteenth-century copy of an oblong civilian road map from the fourth century after Christ, showing the Roman Empire and adjoining areas, with the main roads.12 North is placed at the top of the page. The north-south axis is very compressed, but the central part of the map is still oriented to the north. Roads through the Pennine, Graian, Cottian and Maritime Alps (one for each) are correctly la be led and situated relative to each othere 1 3 Nevertheless, errors and omissions could have occurred in whatever map Ammianus employed. As R.J.A. Talbert has pointed out, identical copies of maps could not be produced in Roman times, nor were there appropriate writing materials for accurate maps.l4 There are other geographical mistakes in Ammianus' Res Gestae. The most notable of these arose from errors in the points of the compass when he described Amida ( = Diyarbakir, Turkey) in 18,9 and 19,5 in the year 359. Our author had been an eyewitness. This mistake has been succinctly 10 Sontheimer, "Exkurs" 29. According to Livy, Hannibal crossed the Duranc_e (21,31,9-12). 11 Sontheimer, "Exkurs" 19-22 and 53. De Jonge suggested "road (travelling-) maps" as a source for our author in Commentary, XV,6-13, p. 49. 12 On the Peutinger Table, see Sontheimer, "Exkurs" 22, Van Berchem, Routes 27, 203; G. Bowersock, Roman Arabia, Cambridge, Mass. 1983, cited as "Arabia", 164-186; O.A.W. Dilke, Greek and Roman Maps, London 1985, cited as "Maps", 113-120; Dilke in J.B. Barley and D. Woodward (eds.), The History of Cartography I, Chicago 1987, cited as "Cartography", 238-242; 276 (oriented to the north). 13 K. Miller (ed.), Die Peutingerische Tafel, repr. Stuttgart 1962, segmentum Ill of the map. 14 R.J.A. Talbert, review of Harley and Woodward, Cartography, in American Historical Review 94 ( 1989) 408-409. Ammianus, Alpine Passes and Maps 153 explained by A. W allace-Ha drill, who believes that it was caused by errors in memory and that Amrnianus did not work from a map.15 L. Dillemann thought that our author was using two maps with different orientations, and P. de Jonge believed that Ammianus was using memory of his autopsy and traveling maps .16 It is generally agreed that Ammianus wrote his Res Gestae in retire-ment long after the years 354-378 that he described.l7 Errors in memory explain geographical mistakes, but he may have used geographical sources in addition to literary sources and autopsy. These could have been maps, but other possibilities are lists of provinces like the Notitia Dignitatum with its list of government offices and the Notitia Galliarum with its list of towns; there are also itineraries, which are lists of sites along roads, and geo-graphical writers like Strabo and Ptolemy. Ammianus' erroneous locations could have arisen from mistakes in any of these types of geographical sources or in his use of them.18 McGill University, Montreal 15 In W. Hamilton (transl.), Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire (A.D. 354-378), Penguin Classics, Harmondsworth 1986, 453-454. Cf. G. Sabbah (ed. and transl.), Ammien Marcellin, Histoire 11, Paris 1970, 206 n. 217. 16 P. de Jonge, Philological and Historical Commentary on Ammianus Marcellinus XVIII, Groningen 1980, 281, citing L. Dillemann, "Ammien Marcellin et les pays de l'Euphrate et du Tigre", Syria 38 (1961) 106. 17 Wallace-Hadrill (cited under Hamilton inn. 15 above) mentions this. Also see, among many, K. Rosen, An1mianus Marcellinus, Darmstadt 1982, 31-35 and J. Matthews, The Roman Empire of Ammianus, London 1989, 17-32. 18 On lists cf. Mommsen, "Geographica" 610-612 and Sabbah, Methode 133. Also see J. Matthews, "Mauritania in Ammianus and the Notitia (Dignitatum)" and A.L.F. Rivet, "The Notitia Galliarum: Some Questions," both in R. Goodbum and P. Bartholomew (eds.), Aspects of the Notitia Dignitatum, BAR Suppl. 15 (1976) and Dilke, Maps 168-170. On road maps and itineraries see Bowersock, Arabia 167 n. 10, Van Berchem, Routes 27, 204 and Dilke, Maps 112-129. On geographical writers see De Jonge, Commentary, XV,6-13, pp. 58-59 and Proctor, March 196. 

Ammianus, Alpine Passes and Maps

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Ammianus, Alpine Passes and Maps

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