What attracts you to Late Rome?

[Robert Vermaat]

Evidence?

Of of the attractive things of this period is that you can have discussions like these.

Evidence?
Let's say that there's no evidence to the contrary. The so-called 'Rescript of Honoroius'(Zosimus, Historia Nova, Book VI.10.2) has long been used to date the 'End of Roman Britain', complete with romantic images of tearful mothers and children waving goodbye to legionaries going aboard ship for Gaul, never to return. But lately momentum has gathered that this passage can no longer bear that weight. Lodged as it is between events dealing with southern Italy, the rest of the chapter (which is faulty and chaotic) is to be taken into account. This has lead some historians to comment that the ‘Brittia’ mentioned here could well have been a misreading of ‘Bruttia’, a beleaguered city in south Italy. Most likely though, the province of Brittii in southern Italy is meant here.

On the other hand we have that enigmatic manuscript, the Notitia Dignitatum. And although it does not prove anything for Britain, there is evidence that at least parts of this list of offices and units was brought up to date until past 425 AD. Either those responcible did not mind to keep chapters about a British diocese lost for over a decade before, or it was not lost by that time.