Ballista: Warrior of Rome (Part 2 - the Historical Ballista)

Marcus Clodius Ballista is the protagonist of Harry Sidebottom’s Warrior of Rome novels. Elements of his story are inspired by an obscure 3rd century historical figure, Ballista (sometimes called Callistus).

In this video we survey the fragmentary - and sometimes conflicting - textual sources on the historical Ballista.

AI disclosure: some of the images in this video are AI-generated. Nothing else in this video is AI-generated.

0:00 Introduction
01:04 Res Gestae Divi Saporis
04:05 Byzantine sources
08:35 Historia Augusta
17:20 Sibylline Oracle XIII
20:14 Summary

Primary sources:
-Joannes Zonaras, Epitome of History – Book XII, 23 and 24 (trans Banchich and Lane)
-Georgios Synkellos, Ekloge chronographias 466 (trans Adler and Tuffin)
-Res Gestae Divi Saporis, lines 1-6, 24-26
-Historia Augusta, Thirty Tyrants, Gallieni, (trans Magie rev Rohrbacher)
-Sibylline Oracle XIII, lines 162 – 171 (trans Potter)

Quoted secondary sources:
-Potter, D.S. (1990) – Prophecy and History in the Crisis of the Roman Empire: A Historical Commentary on the Thirteenth Sibylline Oracle
-Sidebottom, H. (2010) Lion of the Sun, Historical Afterword

Other sources
-Adler, W. and Tuffin, P., The Chronography of George Synkellos, a Byzantine Chronicle of Universal History from the Creation
-Banchich, T and Lane, E.N., The History of Zonaras from Alexander Severus to the Death of Theodosius the Great
-Barnes, T.D. “Some Persons in the Historia Augusta.” Phoenix 26, no. 2 (1972): 140–82. https://doi.org/10.2307/1087714
-Dodgeon M.H and Lieu S.N.C, The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars (AD 226-363, a Documentary History)
-Drinkwater, J. Maximinus to Diocletian and the ‘Crisis’, in Cambridge Ancient History vol XII
-Klebs, W. Prosopographia imperii Romani Saec. I. II. III.
-Maricq, André. “Classica et Orientalia: 5. Res Gestae Divi Saporis.” Syria 35, no. 3/4 (1958): 295–360. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4197176
-Mennen, Inge. “PRAETORIAN PREFECTS AND OTHER HIGH-RANKING EQUESTRIANS.” In Power and Status in the Roman Empire, AD 193-284, 135–91. Brill,
2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j...
-Millar, Fergus. “Paul of Samosata, Zenobia and Aurelian: The Church, Local Culture and Political Allegiance in Third-Century Syria.” The Journal of Roman Studies 61 (1971): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.2307/300003
-Olmstead, A. T. “The Mid-Third Century of the Christian Era. II.” Classical Philology 37, no. 4 (1942): 398–420. http://www.jstor.org/stable/264220
-Oost, Stewart Irvin. “The Alexandrian Seditions under Philip and Gallienus.” Classical Philology 56, no. 1 (1961): 1–20. http://www.jstor.org/stable/267054
-Potter, D.S. The Roman Empire at Bay AD 180-395
-SAGE, MICHAEL M. “The Persecution of Valerian and the Peace of Gallienus.” Wiener Studien 96 (1983): 137–59. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24746544
-Sickle, C. E. van. “Particularism in the Roman Empire during the Military Anarchy.” The American Journal of Philology51, no. 4 (1930): 343–57. https://doi.org/10.2307/289894
-Sidebottom, H. Severan Historiography: evidence, patterns and arguments, in Severan culture, ed. Swain, Harrison, Elsner
-Spengling, M (1953) Third Century Iran, Sapor and Kartir (https://archive.org/details/Sprenglin...)
-Swain, S Macrianus as the ‘Well-horned Stag’ in the Thirteenth Sibylline Oracle (https://grbs.library.duke.edu/index.p...)