This research re-examines the reaction to the political and military collapse of western Roman authority in the reigns of Zeno and Anastasius, purposing to re-investigate the reasons for silence on AD 476 in much of the documentation preceding the Justinianic reconquest. Contrary to the interpretation of a ‘noiseless fall’ by Momigliano, centred on unawareness and indifference, the study shifts the focus to ideological reasons as the significant cause of silence. The work follows the argument that fourth- and fifth-century Roman history was dominated by ‘noiseless falls’ due to failure to significantly reformulate the Empire’s ideological construction. In particular, the continuing importance in the system of collective beliefs of the notion of imperial victory as proof of God’s favour, and therefore of an emperor’s right to rule, compelled the latter always to depict himself as ever-victorious. The introduction and chapter one deal with the major theoretical issues of previous scholarship and the state of the sources. Chapter two defines both the ideological framework and its tension with changing reality; it then focuses on showing how reverses in the 4th and 5th centuries resulted in a constant denial by the secular and religious establishment of the Empire of territorial loss, and even more energetic assertions of success. The continuity of this tendency is shown in chapter three, which addresses Zeno’s and Anastasius’ reigns, while the last chapter discusses in detail the evidence of AD 476 as a case of historical removal. Here it is finally proposed how this view was accepted by the other orders of society, and how it survived until the Age of Justinian, shifting the geographical focus from Constantinople to the flourishing post-Roman courts in the West. The work aims to bring into dialogue a wide range of sources and methodologies, including history and art history, historiography, numismatic, epigraphy and literature.
