explit at Larnia”.. He refers to Alaric’s blockade of Rome, and says that “some persons were suspected of having partaken of human flesh”. He tells us that Jovius, prefect of Italy, held a conference with Alaric, after which he presented Alaric’s demands to Honorius. (When the emperor refused to put Alaric in charge of the army, Sozomen tells us that Jovius thought it prudent to side with Honorius “compelling the principal officeers to swear that they would never consent to any terms of peace with Alaric.”) Sozomen refers to the three usurpers in Britain at this time (Mark, Gratian and Constantine III), and gives an account of the latter’s adventures on the continent. Zosimus, writing his New History at the turn of the fifth and sixth centuries, provides the fullest version of Olympiodorus' history, though he used only one fifth of it, and omitted some details used by Sozomen. Initially his history, based on the work of Eunapius, concentrated on the Eastern Empire; however he switched to the west, paraphrasing Olympiodorus, who was “the almost exclusive source” for his last chapters (Chapters 5.6-6.13). Zosimus maintains Olympiodorus’s practice of providing geographical detail, giving distances in Roman miles, and a chronology using consular dating: ”the Vandals, uniting with the Alani and the Suevi, crossed" the Alps in “the three passes, which form the passage from Italy into Celtica, commonly termed the Cottian, the Pennine, and the Maritime Alps…Arcadius being in his sixth consulate and Probus was his colleague”: A "report had been circulated at Rome, that the emperor Arcadius was dead, which was confirmed after the departure of Arcadius for Ravenna. Stilico being at Ravenna while the emperor was at a city of Aemilia, called Bononia, about seventy miles distant". In the sections taken from Olympiodorus, Zosimus preserves his Latinisms, with Latin words, phrases and sentences appearing in the Greek text (with a Greek translation). Matthews notes the improvement in quality when Zosimus follows Olympiodorus, eg. in the accuracy of titles and personal details. He draws particular attention to the change in attitude towards Stilicho in Zosimus’ work: Eunapius was extremely hostile to the Vandal, which is reflected in the first references to him in the New History, which report that, through bribery, money flowed into the coffers of Stilicho (and his eastern equivalent, Rufinus); when Zosimus switches to Olympiodorus, this changes to a more sympathetic account: “He was the most moderate