Zosimus, New History 5.12

Zosimus (Greek Ζώσιμος): Early Byzantine, pagan author of a history of the Roman Empire, published in the first quarter of the sixth century CE.

The translation of Zosimus' New History offered here was printed in 1814 by W. Green and T. Chaplin in London, and was probably prepared by J. Davis of the Military Chronicle and Military Classics Office. The translator is anonymous. The text was found at Tertullian.org. The notes were added by Jona Lendering.


[5.12.1] From this period the animosity between Eutropius and Stilicho was very evident and the subject of general discourse. Yet though they were at variance with each other, they agreed in insulting with security the miseries of the people, the one having given his daughter Maria in marriage to to the emperor Honorius, and the other governing Arcadius as if he were a sheep, or any other tame animal.

[5.12.2] For if any of the subjects had a villa remarkable for elegance, one of them would become its master. If any silver or gold were heard of, it flowed from its former proprietors into their coffers. Great numbers of sycophants being dispersed in all places, who were ordered to give notice of such things