Zosimus

Zosimus ( Latinized Zosimus ) was a late antique Greek historian, who wrote a historical work entitled Historia nea ( " New History " ) around 500 AD. It is considered the last ancient historical work of a pagan author.

Life and work

The non-Christian legally formed Zosimus probably originated in the Syro- Palestinian area. Well 498-518 ( according to the view of some scholars 498-502 ) he wrote a New History (Greek: Ίστορία νέα / historia NEA) of Rome in six books, which dealt with the history from Augustus to 410. After a very brief abstract of the Emperor Diocletian's time to (the portion of the reign of this emperor is missing today ) followed by a more detailed description of what happened in the 4th and 5th centuries. The description breaks shortly before the conquest of Rome by the Visigoths from Alaric in 410. It is assumed, also due to lack of finishing, that the work is unfinished.

Zosimus used several sources now lost. So he moved, among other things, in particular the works of both non-Christians Eunapius of Sardis and Olympiodorus of Thebes zoom, probably represents the beginning of his work, the Chronicle of Dexippos as well as for the campaign Persie Julians possibly the treatise of Magnus of Carrhae. The work is valuable in spite of several chronological and factual errors for those tumultuous epoch, since it is the only surviving detailed representation for parts of the late 4th and early 5th century; also for the 3rd century Zosimus provides some important information. Zosimus is likely to have mostly kept quite close to his originals: So is about Stilicho has very intense used in reference to the work of the Eunapius that Zosimus according to the statement of Photius, which had yet both works, initially negative, but later (probably positively portrayed due to the attraction of the historical work of Olympiodorus ). The reports have been available to him but sometimes deliberately changed and supplemented - how much is in the research, however, disputed.

Zosimus was a self-confessed Pagan ( " Heather" ) and a dedicated enemy of Christianity, which is also evident in his work. It is often assumed the absence of the sections on the persecutor Diocletian and the conquest of Rome ( the non-Christians understood as the vengeance of the gods at the Christianized empire ) was no accident, but later Christian copyists have this perceived as offensive passages deliberately not recorded. Even so, it is clear that Zosimus conceived the decline of the empire as punishment for turning away from the old gods: By Konstantin did not stop 313 the due secular celebrations, the Reich had lost the divine assistance. This position was taken by Zosimus undoubtedly already from his sources. But in other places Zosimus polemic against the Christian emperors, while he praises the last pagan ruler Julian extensively. The historical picture of Zosimus is strongly negatively stained; for him the fall of the Roman Empire is already an inescapable fact, even though the eastern empire still remained very long time. In this sense, he wanted to describe the history of this alleged destruction and interpret from explicitly pagan perspective.

The work of Zosimus can not intellectually away with the other late antique historians such as Ammianus Marcellinus, Olympiodorus of Thebes (which, as the basis recognizable fragments of his work, more detailed information made ​​), Priscus or Prokop compete who reported and much as contemporaries partly own experiences objectively judged. In addition, Zosimus are several substantive error of ( chronological, ethnographic and geographic ); he is confusing eg the rivers Danube and the Don. Nevertheless, he is, as I said, due to the loss of other late antique works of history ( gestae after the end of the Res Ammianus ) the primary source for the events of 378 to 410 dar.

From Zosimus ' further life nothing is known. The fact that at the beginning of the 6th century was still possible, an openly anti- Christian work to be published, which apparently also found its audience and was spread, an indication is that the " paganism " then indeed has long been on the decline, but was still always existed and was of some importance.

Editions and translations

• Zosime. Nouvelle Histoire. Translated and annotated by François Paschoud. 3 vols, Budé, Paris 1971-1989 ( with introduction, French translation and extensive commentary).
• Zosimus. New story. Translated and introduced by Otto Veh, checked and explained by Stefan Rebenich. Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-7772-9025-4 ( see further references therein).
• Ronald T. Ridley (ed.): Zosimus. New History. Canberra, 1982 ( English translation with commentary).
• Zosimi comitis et exadvocati fisci Historia nova. Edited by Ludwig Mendelssohn, Olms, Hildesheim et al 2003 [ 2 Nachdr d ed Teubner, Leipzig, 1887 ], ISBN 978-3-487-05208-3.