The fall of the Western Roman Empire, as viewed by Pagan Zosimus: The case of Historia Nova

The spread of Christianity in the second century, civil wars that occured during the third century crisis and the increasing barbarian threat along the borders as well as theological debates and the fights for the throne that continued in the fourth and fifth centuries are the key factors of the changing character of the Roman Empire. These factors that effected the empire negatively in every aspect caused the process of decline and fall, which is the main topic of the hundreds of studies today. The contemporary interpretations of the process which was discussed in detail in the works of the pagan and Christian historians of Late Antiquity have led the direction of the modern history researches. For example, Edward Gibbon's claim that the empire was weakened by the Christianization and barbarization process was based on the opinions that were declared in Historia Nova by Zosimus, the pagan historian of Late Antiquity. Zosimus who lived between the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. and wrote a "Roman History" composed of six books in Greek in the first quarter of the sixth century, aimed at explaining the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire for the future generations. The piece starts with a brief summary of the empire of Augustus to the rule of Diocletianus and it ends with the invasion of Rome by the Gothic King Alaric in 410. The author, committed to the traditional Roman gods, held especially the Christian emperors responsible for the fall of the Roman Empire due to their policies and perceived the fall of the empire as the vengeance of the old Roman gods. In this context, while Constantinus and Theodosius I who were praised by the Christian writers of the period were condemned for being responsible for the curse, Iulianus who worked for the advancement of paganism was commemorated with praises in Historia Nova. The main purpose of our research is to review the process of change and transformation of the Roman Empire through Zosimus' Historia Nova and to present an evaluation of his comments on the fall of the empire. For this purpose, the narrative of Zosimus is analyzed by its comparison to the information that takes place in the pieces of other pagan and Christian historians of Late Antiquity and the originality of Historia Nova is questioned. In this way, it is intended to contribute to the field by attempting to make a new comment on the Roman history researches through examining Historia Nova, which has been accepted as a significant source for the period in which the Western Roman Empire fell and the Byzantine Empire was born, in the light of the different sources of antiquity.