ZOSIMO E IL SENATO DI ROMA dalla crisi gildonica alla caduta di Stilicone

This paper studies Zosimus’ account of the years between the Gildonic crisis and the fall of Stilicho, to see how much attention he devotes to the activities of the Senate of Rome. A comparison with other testimonies shows that he omitted the meeting of the Senate in 397, when Gildon was declared hostis publicus, and probably also the one that Stilicho wanted to convene between February and April 407, after receiving the letter in which the emperor Honorius ordered him to abandon the project of annexing Illyricum. The Senate’s relations with Honorius, Stilicho and Serena are treated inadequately, burdening Serena with re- sponsibilities that were certainly also shared by Stilicho. Finally, the assembly of 408 is de- scribed by reducing the complexity of the heated debate that developed between groups of differently oriented senators. For all these reasons, and in relation to what happened later, it is probable that the relationship between the Senate and Alaric was also different from how Zosimus describes it and that Philostorgius hands down a more reliable version of the election of that senator.