The Church Historians (I): Socrates, Sozomenus, and Theodoretus

Abstract

Classicising historiography found a worthy continuator in Olympiodorus; ecclesiastical historiography was as productive as never before. No less than four Church historians are known from this age: Philostorgius, Socrates, Sozomenus, and Theodoretus. The works by three of them are completely or nearly completely preserved, Philostorgius' work can be reconstructed from numerous fragments in its main outlines. Apart from these a so-called Christian history was written by Philippus of Side, which was certainly more directly related to the Church histories than to pagan historiography. There are many striking resemblances between the Church histories of Socrates, Sozomenus and Theodoretus: all three of them claim to continue Eusebius' Church history; all three of them are built around the reigns of Roman emperors; and their judgements on individual emperors are all very similar. In this chapter, Theodosius' clemency is extolled and regarded as the decisive reason for Roman victories. Keywords: Church history; pagan historiography; Roman emperor; Socrates; Sozomenus; Theodoretus