An Empire of the Best: Zosimus, the monarchy, and the Eastern administrative elite in the fifth century CE

Abstract

In his outline of Roman history down to Diocletian in book One of the New History, Zosimus pauses the historical narrative at a crucial moment – the Augustan revolution – to mount a sharp attack on the Roman monarchy. The article contends that previous interpretations of this passage failed to grasp its historical context and full significance. Zosimus’ polemic, the paper suggests, should be contextualized within a much broader critical discourse among the administrative elite of the later Roman empire in the fifth and sixth centuries that revolved around issues of office-holding and good government and the relationship between monarchy and the offices and order of the state. The paper argues that this discourse should be related to a major social and cultural transformation that had its roots in the fourth century but gained particular momentum during Zosimus’ lifetime in the fifth century: the rise to prominence and growing self-confidence of the late Roman aristocracy of service that led some of its members to rethink the role of the monarchy in the administration of empire. By outlining one aspect of the emerging corporate identity and ideology of this group related to the critical discourse on monarchy and the offices of state, the paper opens a window onto a rich but understudied area of the social and cultural history of the later Roman empire.