Gravitas e prisci mores: sovrapposizione di sistemi etici tra repubblica e tardo impero
abstract
Ammianus seems to recover some ethics- and character-related concepts from previous (i.e. classical) historiography, which are obviously reworked according to personal thought and narrative strategies. The paper analyses the expressions gravitas and prisci mores in some passages from Ammianus. These passages and the related terminology in the Res Gestae are then compared to Livy, Tacitus and other authors, previous and contemporary to Ammianus, in order to highlight how some concepts representing a specific kind of virtue in the late antiquity lexicon undergo transformations.
Keywords: xAmmianus • Lexicon • Livius • Exempla • Julian