Zosimus; Johannes Leunclavius; The History of Count Zosimus, sometime Advocate and Chancellor of the Roman Empire : Translated from the original Greek, with the notes of the Oxford Edition; London: Printed for J Davis 1814. 241 pages. Hardcover.
Ancient Roman History - Early Works Byzantine Empire Fall Of Rome
Very Good-. Text tone with random foxing, some marginalia, rebound in marbled paper covers and paper spine and front cover labels, otherwise light wear. Solid hardcover.
Zosimus, the last Pagan historian of the Byzantine Empire, wrote his history circa 500, which ends with the sole contemporary account of the fall of Rome to the Visigoths. The German historian, classicist, and orientalist Johannes Leunclavius translated Zosimus into Latin in 1576, the English translation of his text of Zosimus was published in 1684. This 1814 edition slightly revises and updates the English of the 1684 translation, with the omission of Leunclavius's Apology for Zosimus (a defense of the pagan historian against Christian critics), and adds a final section, "Comparative View of Antient and of Modern Geography". Zosimus' History is notable for his central theme that the decline of the Roman Empire was due to the abandonment of traditional pagan religion and practices, and their replacement by Christianity. His account of Constantine dates the conversion as later, after an alleged murder by Constantine of his wife and son. An uncommon history, by a historian who lived during the final fall of the western Roman Empire.

Very Good-. Text tone with random foxing, some marginalia, rebound in marbled paper covers and paper spine and front cover labels, otherwise light wear. Solid hardcover.

9.25 x 5.75 x 0.75 in

1 lb