† History of the Social Constitution of the Christian Church, by D. G. J. Planck, 4 parts, 1800. It is the first part of this excellent work which relates to this period.
THIRD SECTION.
From Diocletian to the overthrow of the Roman empire in the west, A. C. 284—476.
Sources. It now becomes of importance to enquire whether the historians were Christians or pagans. Zosimus, the imitator of Polybius, belonged to the last. He describes the fall of the Roman state, as his model does the previous part. Of his Histories only five books and a half, to the time of Gratian, 410, have descended to us. He was certainly a violent antagonist of the Christians, yet, nevertheless, the best writer of this period. Ammiani Marcellini Historiarum, lib. xiv—xxxi. from the year 353—378 (the first thirteen books are lost). Probably a Christian, but yet no flatterer; and, notwithstanding his tiresome prolixity, highly instructive. Together with the writers of general history already noticed at p. 437, we must here especially add to the abbreviators, Pauli Orosii Hist. lib. vii. and Zonaræ Annales. The Panegyrici Veteres, from Diocletian to Theodosius, can only be used with circumspection.—The writers of church history, such as Eusebius, in his Hist. Eccles. lib. x. and in his Vita Constantini Magni, lib. v. as well as his continuators, Socrates, Theodoret, Sozomenus, and Evagrius, are also highly important for the political history of this period, though, from their partiality towards the Christian emperors, they should rather be classed with the panegyrists than the historians. To these may be added another principal source, viz. the Constitutions of the emperors, which have been preserved in the Codex Theodosianus and Justinianeus, from the time of Constantine the Great.
Besides the works quoted at pages 411, 437, the Byzantine historians here become of importance. We shall mention also:
Histoire du Bas-Empire depuis Constantin, par M. le Beau, continuée par M. Ameilhon. Paris, 1824, 20 vols. 8vo. The first seven parts only belong to this period.
† The German translation of Guthrie and Gray's Universal History, 5 sections, 1 vol. Leipsic, 1768. Rendered very useful by the labours of Ritter.
Histoire du Bas-Empire, depuis Constantin jusqu' à la prise de Constantinople en 1453, par Carentin Royou. Paris, 1803, 4 vols. 8vo. A useful abridgement, without much research.