Constantine, Julian and the senate of Constantinople in Zosimus’ New History

According to modern scholarship, Zos. III, 11, 2-3 ascribes to Julian the foundation of the Eastern Senate, in order to praise his ideal emperor by attributing his predecessors’ merits to him. By reconsidering this passage, together with Zosimus’ references to the Eastern Senate under Constantine, and Claudius Mamertinus’ Panegyric to Julian, it is possible to propose a new interpretation of it, and to clarify the historian’s view of the relationship between emperor and senate under Constatine and his successors.

Keywords: Julian, Constantine, Zosimus, Senate, Constantinople, Claudius Mamertinus.