The question asks you to think holistically about the way in which Orosius’ Seven Books Against the Pagans (book 7) conceives of the Roman imperial edifice. What, to this author, is the Roman Empire, what does it mean to live under it, how does the Empire reach into Orosius’ life, what does he expect from it, what are its strengths and weaknesses in his view? And on the question of how the source explains the fall of the Empire, remember that there is an obvious trap – Orosius may neither understand nor explain any such thing, and exploring this is part of the exercise. Did Orosius know that it was written in the last days of the Western Empire?
The key theme I want you to emphasise is Orosius was clealy biased by his Christian background and more than anything cared about Christianity and it’s position in society above Roman political power or the status of the Western Empire. Note his emphasis on religion as an answer to all questions past, present and future. Note his relatively sympathetic views on Germanic “barbarians”
Please limit to the best of your ability the use of ChatGPT and/or other AI to write this. Word count includes footnotes but not bibliography.
Sources : Mainly use Orosius’ 7th book itself, from subchapter 32 to 43. https://www.attalus.org/translate/orosius7B.html
In Defiance of History – Orosius and the Unimproved Past by Victoria Leonard
Also use Andrew Fear’s Orosius translation introduction, he’s a University of Liverpool historian, other sources I’ll leave up to you but make sure they’re solidly academic. The focus is on Orosius’ text and not secondary sources.