He is known from coins, and from mentions in Zosimus and Zonaras, who say that he was an officer in one of the Danube legions.

Edward Gibbon, drawing on Zosimus, criticizes Stilicho for being overconfident in victory and indulging in luxury and women, allowing Alaric to escape.

Zosimus was eventually accused of being a secret heretic and, on May 17, 1494, he was removed from the metropolitan throne on charges of heresy and sodomy.

In the Roman manuscripts the canons of Sardica followed those of Nicaea immediately, without an independent title, while the African manuscripts contained only the genuine canons of Nicaea, so that the canon appealed to by Zosimus was not contained in the African copies of the Nicene canons.

Her death is mentioned by ( among others ) Claudian, Zosimus, Philostorgius and Joannes Zonaras.

The fifth-century pagan Zosimus, by contrast, praised Diocletian for keeping troops on the borders, rather than keeping them in the cities, as Constantine was held to have done.

* Dexippus: Scythica which was used by Zosimus for his New hystory

The other sources ( Zosimus i. 40 and Zonaras xii. 25 ), report that the conspiracy was organized by Heraclianus, Claudius and Aurelian.

The poem " In Praise of Serena " by Claudian and the " Historia Nova " by Zosimus clarify that Serena's father was an elder Honorius, a brother to Theodosius I.

A Saxon incursion in 408 was apparently repelled by the Britons, and in 409 Zosimus records that the natives expelled the Roman civilian administration ( although Zosimus may be referring to the Bacaudic rebellion of the Breton inhabitants of Armorica since he describes how, in the aftermath of the revolt, all of Armorica and the rest of Gaul followed the example of the Brettaniai ).

In a contrary account, Zosimus claims he was assassinated, after appointing one of his relatives to an important command in Syria.

On the day of the funeral for Pope Zosimus, which was held at San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, partisans of Eulalius occupied the Lateran.

The historian Zosimus in his Historia Nova suggests that during the sack of Rome in 410 by Alaric I, Innocent I was willing to permit private pagan practices as a temporary measure.

His successor was Zosimus.

Pope Saint Zosimus was born in Mesoraca, Calabria and was Pope from 18 March 417 to 26 December 418 ( or 27 December ).

He succeeded Innocent I and was followed by Boniface I. Zosimus took a decided part in the protracted dispute in Gaul as to the jurisdiction of the See of Arles over that of Vienne, giving energetic decisions in favour of the former, but without settling the controversy.

According to the Liber Pontificalis, Zosimus was a Greek and his father's name was Abram.

The pope was won over by the calculated conduct of Caelestius, and said that it was not certain whether he had really maintained the false doctrine rejected by Innocent, and therefore Zosimus considered the action of the African bishops against Caelestius too hasty.

Archbishop Aurelius of Carthage quickly called a synod, which sent a reply to Zosimus in which it was proved that the pope had been deceived by the heretics.

Zosimus next made the further mistake of basing his action on a reputed canon of the First Council of Nicaea, which was in reality a canon of the Council of Sardica.

Zosimus was buried in the sepulchral Church of St. Laurence in Agro Verano.

Though the decline of the Roman Empire was the main subject which Zosimus selected, it was perhaps his ambition to imitate Polybius which led him to introduce various matters connected with Persian, Grecian, and Macedonian history, which are not very intimately connected with his main design.

Zosimus was a pagan, and is by no means sparing of the faults and crimes of the Christian emperors.

The history of Zosimus was first printed in the Latin translation of Leunclavius, accompanied by a defence of the historian ( Basel, 1576, fol .).

The chief authorities on the career of Alaric are: the historian Orosius and the poet Claudian, both contemporary, neither disinterested ; Zosimus, a historian who lived probably about half a century after Alaric's death ; and Jordanes, a Goth who wrote the history of his nation in 551, basing his work on The Trojan War.

The pope held a new synod of the Roman clergy, before which both these writings were read ; the assembly held the statements to be orthodox, and Zosimus again wrote to the African bishops defending Pelagius and reproving his accusers, among whom were the Gallic bishops Hero and Lazarus.

The Liber Pontificalis attributes to Zosimus a decree on the wearing of the maniple by deacons and on the dedication of Easter candles in the country parishes ; also a decree forbidding clerics to visit taverns.

Yet it seems likely on some accounts, either that a part of the work has been lost or, what is more likely, that Zosimus did not live to finish it ; for as we now have it, it does not embrace all that Zosimus himself tells us he intended to take up ( iv.

The most important ancient sources for the battle are Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum 44 ; Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History ix, 9 and Life of Constantine i, 28-31 ( the vision ) and i, 38 ( the actual battle ); Zosimus ii, 15-16 ; and the Panegyrici Latini of 313 ( anonymous ) and 321 ( by Nazarius ).

The former work is still extant ; of the latter only excerpts remain, but the facts are largely incorporated in the work of Zosimus.

Ancient toponyms for Samarra noted by the Samarra Archaeological Survey are Greek Souma ( Ptolemy V. 19, Zosimus III, 30 ), Latin Sumere, a fort mentioned during the retreat of the army of Julian the Apostate in 364 AD ( Ammianus Marcellinus XXV, 6, 4 ), and Syriac Sumra ( Hoffmann, Auszüge, 188 ; Michael the Syrian, III, 88 ), described as a village.

Of Herodian, Photius wrote “ he neither exaggerates with hyperbole nor omits anything essential ; in short, in all the virtues of historiography there are few men who are his superior .” Zosimus used him as a source as did John of Antioch when writing his World Chronicle.

Neither of the main ancient sources for this period, Ammianus Marcellinus and Zosimus, mention the Bastarnae in their accounts of the 4th century, possibly implying the loss of their separate identity, presumably subsumed into the neighbouring Sarmatians or Goths.

Ancient sources about the event attribute this decision either to divine intervention ( e. g., Lactantius, Eusebius ) or superstition ( e. g., Zosimus ).

Even if it is accepted that the Zosimus quote proves the continued existence in 381 of the Dacians as a distinct ethnic group, it is the last such mention in the ancient sources.

The major primary sources on the early Franks include Panegyrici Latini, Ammianus Marcellinus, Claudian, Zosimus, Sidonius Apollinaris and Gregory of Tours.

The effects are described by Zosimus as even worse than the earlier Antonine plague ( 166-80 ), which probably killed 15-30 % of the empire's inhabitants.

Zosimus writing in the early sixth century from Constantinople, states that the Frank had Valentinian murdered, ancient authorities are divided in their opinion.

A 6th-century Byzantine scholar, Zosimus also described the total massacre of Decius ' troops and the fall of the pagan emperor:

However, Zosimus also suggests that this attempt by pagans to restore public worship failed due to lack of public interest, suggesting that Rome had been successfully Christianized in the last century.

Zosimus reports that Arcadius was also influenced by the extraordinary beauty of his bride but this is considered doubtful by later scholars.

A comparison with Zosimus, who also made use of Olympiodorus, seems to show that the whole ninth book of Sozomen, is mostly an abridged extract from Olympiodorus.

While the author of the Historia Augusta drew from Herodian, he also censured him for bias, and Herodian was by no means Zosimus ’ first choice.