Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine (c. ad 314-39), composed a wide range of theological and apologetic works but was most famous for his historical works, as the result of which he is commonly hailed as the father of church history. Technically, he did not invent church history, since he had predecessors such as Sextus Julius Africanus, who wrote a five-book Chronography covering events from creation to AD 217, but he certainly reinvented it, so that it became more comprehensive in scope and more critical in matters of chronology.
The earliest of his three historical works was his chronicle, which consisted of two linked parts: a Chronography, which was a compendium of regnal and source lists nation by nation; and his Chronicle Canons, which was a complete chronology of world history, a synthesis of the material in the Chronography (Burgess 1999). In its final form, this chronology stretches from the birth of Abraham (2016 bc) to the beginning of the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the accession of Constantine I in ad 325. Eusebius used three main chronological systems: years since the birth of Abraham, Olympiads, and regnal years. This work has not survived in its original Greek, but its content and format can be reconstructed from its preservation
As part of four subsequent texts, the Latin translation and continuation that the monk Jerome composed at Constantinople in ad 381, an Armenian translation from c. AD 600, and two Syriac epitomes, one in the so-called Chronicle of 724, which was actually composed in ad 640, and the other in the Chronicle of Zuqnin (also called the Chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius), which was composed in ad 775. Eusebius probably completed the first edition of his chronicle in ad 311, but revised and extended it in ad 314 and 325.
Eusebius’ second historical work was his Church History, a detailed account of the history of the Christian church from the birth of Jesus Christ down to (in its final form) Constantine’s defeat of his rival Licinius in ad 324. Eusebius seems to have produced four different editions of this work: a first edition in seven books, some time before Diocletian’s persecution of the Christians in ad 303; a second edition in AD 314 after Maximinus’ persecution of the Christians; a third edition in ten volumes in AD 315; and a final edition in ad 325 (Barnes 1980). The most noteworthy feature of this work, and one that distinguished it so greatly from traditional historical works, was that Eusebius did not hesitate to quote at length from a wide variety of earlier sources.
His final historical work was his Life of Constantine. He had not finished this by his death, so that one of his successors at Caesarea edited it and published it in his name shortly afterward. It consists of four books and defies easy classification, being a combination of panegyric and biography, but a religious biography rather than a biography in the strict classical sense (Averil Cameron 1997). Both his Church History and his Life of Constantine survive in the original Greek.
Several authors wrote continuations of Eusebius’ Church History The priest Rufi-nus produced at Aquileia c. ad 403 an abridged translation into Latin and a continuation of Eusebius’ history until the death of the emperor Theodosius I (ad 379-95), but he found no continuator subsequently. In the Greek east, Philostorgius wrote a continuation of Eusebius’ history in twelve books until the death of the usurper John in AD 425, but it has survived only as an epitome made by Photius, the patriarch of Constantinople (ad 858-67). Philostorgius’ work is unique in that he wrote from an Arian perspective in defense of those theologians and emperors who were to be condemned as heretics by the other surviving continuators of Eusebius.
The first Greek continuation to survive in full was that by Socrates of Constantinople (Urbainczyk 1997). He wrote a church history in seven books from the accession of Constantine in ad 306 down to ad 439. His concern for the accuracy of his work reveals itself in several ways. He used an annotated consular list or chronicle to provide him with a series of precise dates for various events, concluded every book with a statement as to the length of time covered by that book, and dated the last events in most books according to the consulate and the Olympiad. More importantly, he reveals that he produced a second edition of his work when, as a result of reading the work of Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria, he discovered that one of his main sources, for his first and second books in particular - namely, the Latin church history of Rufinus of Aquileia - had contained several important chronological errors (Socrates, Hist. eccl. 2. 1). He probably wrote shortly after ad 439, and certainly before the death of Theodosius II in ad 450. He did so at the request of a ‘‘holy man of God’’ called Theodore, of whom nothing else is known. Our knowledge of Socrates himself derives entirely from his text, but he lets little slip about his identity. Later manuscripts describe him as a scholasticus, a lawyer, but nothing within the text itself supports this description. Insofar as he demonstrates an unusual degree of knowledge of, and sympathy toward, the Novatians, it has sometimes been argued that he was a member of this schismatic sect, but there is no firm proof either way. Socrates used a wide variety of sources, Christian and pagan, written and oral, and the scrupulous nature of his research reveals itself, for example, in his reference to two epic poems that remain unknown otherwise (Socrates, Hist. eccl. 3. 21. 14; 6. 6. 36).
The second Greek continuation of Eusebius’ church history to survive in full is that by Sozomen. He composed a church history in nine books and, although he states in his preface that he would begin in ad 323 and end in ad 439, his narrative actually breaks off in ad 425. So, he probably died before he could complete the work. He dedicates it to Theodosius II. He also wrote an epitome in two books covering the period from the Ascension until the death of Licinius (Sozom. Hist. eccl. 1. 1). This had clearly been intended as an introduction to his main church history, but it has not survived. Although he used the history of Socrates as one of his main sources, he does not openly acknowledge this fact, and obviously wrote within a year or two of Socrates. Yet he also consulted afresh many of the same sources that Socrates had used. Furthermore, he consulted several new sources: legal texts, the secular history by Olympiodorus of Thebes, and the Historia Lausiaca by Palladius on the monks of Egypt.
The major differences between these two historians, Socrates and Sozomen, concern their style and their content. Sozomen adopts a more elevated and rhetorical style designed to appeal to a readership well versed in classical historiography. As to the content, he is more overtly polemical, as when he replies to the claims by pagan historians that Constantine I had his eldest son Crispus executed (Sozom. Hist. eccl. 1. 5). He also provides more information about his own life than does Socrates, so that we know that he was born into a Christian family near Bethela in Gaza, and that he came to Constantinople c. ad 426, where he worked as a lawyer.
The third continuation of Eusebius’ church history to survive in full is that by Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus in Syria (ad 423-53). He composed a church history in five books from the defeat of Licinius in ad 324 down to the death of Bishop Theodotus of Antioch in ad 429. He also composed a wide range of theological works, a collection of letters, and his so-called Religious History, a collection of short biographies of the most famous monks of the deserts of Syria. He was born and reared at Antioch, and spent his whole life in Syria. He was very active in the ecclesiastical politics of his day and sought to defend Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople (ad 428-31), against the charge of heresy. The result was that in ad 449 the emperor ordered him confined within his own see, and he was twice condemned by church councils after his death. It is not certain whether he knew the works of Socrates or Sozomen, since his church history is very different. He reports events from an Antiochene perspective in contrast to their Constantinopolitan perspective, and he is far less concerned with precise chronology than either of them. He preserves a great deal of material unknown to either of his predecessors, but it is clear that he invented much of this, or relied on a source who had done so (Woods 2001a). His is by far the most unreliable and amateurish of the three histories, and he often seems more interested in pious propaganda than in a truthful report of the past.
The next church history in Greek to survive in full was that by the scholasticus Evagrius, composed c. ad 594 (Allen 1981). This was divided into six books and covered the period from the first Council of Ephesus in ad 431 down to the death of John, bishop of Jerusalem, in ad 594. Evagrius was born at Epiphania in Syria and spent most of his life as a lawyer in the service of Bishop Gregory of Antioch (ad 570-92). He writes, therefore, from an Antiochene perspective. He produced two other works, a collection of documents that had been issued in the name of Bishop Gregory, and a work that celebrated the birth of the emperor Maurice’s eldest son in ad 584 (neither has survived). As a result, the emperor Tiberius Constantine (ad 578-82) granted him the rank of quaestor, while Maurice granted him the rank of prefect (Evagrius, Hist. eccl. 6. 24). In the preface to his history, Evagrius reveals that he saw himself continuing the work not only of Eusebius but also of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. He used a wide variety of different sources: the acta of the church councils, earlier church histories, the lives of holy men, and secular histories (even by pagans). One of his most important sources was the church history composed in Greek by Zechariah of Mitylene during the ad 490s, which seems to have covered events since the Council of Chalcedon in ad 451. Zechariah was a native of Gaza and practiced as a lawyer for a while at Constantinople before he was made bishop of Mitylene. Unfortunately, his work survives only in the form of an epitome by an anonymous Syriac author (now known as Pseudo-Zechariah), which continued down to AD 569. The most important secular source for the earlier part of Evagrius’ history was the two-volume work (now lost) by Eustathius of Epiphaneia, covering the period from creation down to ad 503 (Evagrius, Hist. eccl. 5. 24). In the latter part of his history, his most important secular source was the Wars by Procopius of Caesarea (ofwhom more below). He also seems to have known and used the histories by the pagans Zosimus and Priscus of Panium, even though he had Eustathius for the same period, and (like Sozomen before him, but with an equal lack of success) he attempts to defend Constantine from the charges made against him by Zosimus (Evagrius, Hist. eccl. 3. 40-1). With Evagrius, unfortunately, the succession of continuators of the Church History of Eusebius reached its end.
World History
