Rescript of Honorius

[Nathan Ross]

I went to a recent lecture at the British Museum on the end of Roman Britain, where Birley argues very understandably (....) did not refer to Britain, but to the Italian provinces of Bruttium

I thought I'd just resurrect this old thread a moment to add a note about this, and some other thoughts, based on David Woods' 2012 essay (from Latomus 71) On The Alleged Letters of Honorius to the Cities of Britain in 410.

Woods argues against the idea that the text of Zosimus should read 'Bruttium' (Brouttía or Bruttía) instead of 'Britain' (Brettanía), as it does at present.

The context of the passage in Zosimus (which Robert quotes in the thread above) has Alaric and the Goths rampaging across Liguria (northern Italy) after breaking off their sieges of Ravenna and Bologna. Woods points out that Bruttium (modern Calabria) is a very long way from Liguria - in fact it's about 500 miles away as the crow flies - and cities there would be in no foreseeable danger at all from the barbarians. This seems to me a quite conclusive argument against the 'Bruttium' idea.

Woods then goes on to suggest that the word should actually read Raitía instead of Brettanía. This might seem a decent solution - Raetia was the province directly north of Liguria in the 5th century, and quite possibly the people there might have been threatened by Goths moving north and west.

However, this idea seems to me also rather unlikely. At this point (probably in early summer 410) Alaric was trying to pressurise Honorius into giving in to his demands, by drumming up support for his puppet emperor Attalus Priscus. By heading north into Raetia, he would be retreating from Italy, taking the pressure off Honorius and leaving Priscus unprotected. It would have been a gesture of surrender. Honorius would have known this, and there seems little reason why he should expect Alaric to move in this direction, or warn the cities there to look to their own defences.

The best explanation for this odd note in the very fragmented and confused text of Zosimus would seem to be that it is simply in the wrong place. It does indeed refer to Britain, Honorius really did tell the citizens of Britain to defend themselves (perhaps after they had expelled Constantine III's officials and written asking for support?) - but at some point in the copying of the original manuscript the line drifted out of its correct context and ended up somewhere else!