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Sozomen

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Salamanes Hermias Sozomenos (Greek: Σαλαμάνης Ἑρμείας Σωζομενός;[a] Latin: Sozomenus; c. 400 – c. 450 AD), also known as Sozomen, was a Roman lawyer and historian of the Christian Church.

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Greek language

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy, southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor, and the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet, which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems.

Historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. Some historians are recognized by publications or training and experience. "Historian" became a professional occupation in the late nineteenth century as research universities were emerging in Germany and elsewhere.

Christian Church

Christian Church

In ecclesiology, the Christian Church is what different Christian denominations conceive of as being the true body of Christians or the original institution established by Jesus. "Christian Church" has also been used in academia as a synonym for Christianity, despite the fact that it is composed of multiple churches or denominations, many of which hold a doctrinal claim of being the "one true church", to the exclusion of the others.

Family and home

He was born around 400 in Bethelia, a small town near Gaza, into a wealthy Christian family of Palestine.

He told the history of Southern Palestine derived from oral tradition.[4] He appeared to be familiar with the region around Gaza, and mentioned having seen Bishop Zeno of Majuma, at the seaport of Gaza.

Grandfather

Sozomen wrote that his grandfather lived at Bethelia,[5] near Gaza, and became a Christian together with his household, probably under Constantius II. A neighbor named Alaphrion was miraculously healed by Saint Hilarion who cast out a demon from Alaphrion, and, as eyewitnesses to the miracle, his family converted, along with Alaphrion's. The conversion marked a turning-point in the Christianization of southern Palestine, according to his account.

The grandfather became within his own circle a highly esteemed interpreter of Scripture. The descendants of the wealthy Alaphrion founded churches and convents in the district, and were particularly active in promoting monasticism. Sozomen himself had conversed with one of these, a very old man. He states that he was brought up under monastic influences and his story bears this out.[4]

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Gaza City

Gaza City

Gaza, also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of 590,481, making it the largest city in the State of Palestine. Inhabited since at least the 15th century BCE, Gaza has been dominated by several different peoples and empires throughout its history.

Palestine (region)

Palestine (region)

Palestine is a geographic region in Western Asia. It is usually considered to include Israel and the State of Palestine, though some definitions also include part of northwestern Jordan.

Oral tradition

Oral tradition

Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. The transmission is through speech or song and may include folktales, ballads, chants, prose or poetry. In this way, it is possible for a society to transmit oral history, oral literature, oral law and other knowledge across generations without a writing system, or in parallel to a writing system. Religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, and Jainism, for example, have used an oral tradition, in parallel to a writing system, to transmit their canonical scriptures, rituals, hymns and mythologies from one generation to the next.

Constantius II

Constantius II

Constantius II was Roman emperor from 337 to 361. His reign saw constant warfare on the borders against the Sasanian Empire and Germanic peoples, while internally the Roman Empire went through repeated civil wars, court intrigues, and usurpations. His religious policies inflamed domestic conflicts that would continue after his death.

Bible

Bible

The Bible is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthology – a compilation of texts of a variety of forms – originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. These texts include instructions, stories, poetry, and prophecies, among other genres. The collection of materials that are accepted as part of the Bible by a particular religious tradition or community is called a biblical canon. Believers in the Bible generally consider it to be a product of divine inspiration, but the way they understand what that means and interpret the text can vary.

Monasticism

Monasticism

Monasticism, also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic life plays an important role in many Christian churches, especially in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions as well as in other faiths such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. In other religions monasticism is criticized and not practiced, as in Islam and Zoroastrianism, or plays a marginal role, as in modern Judaism. Many monastics live in abbeys, convents, monasteries or priories to separate themselves from the secular world, unless they are in mendicant or missionary orders.

Life and career

Education

Sozomen seems to have been brought up in the circle of Alaphrion and acknowledges a debt of gratitude to the monastic order. His early education was directed by the monks in his native place. It is impossible to ascertain what curriculum he followed in these monastic schools, but his writings give clear evidence of the thoroughness with which he was grounded in Greek studies.[6]

As a man he retained the impressions of his youth, and his great work later was to be also a monument of his reverence for the monks in general and for the disciples of Hilarion in particular.[4]

Lawyer

As an adult he acquired training as a lawyer. He studied law in Beirut.[7] He then went to Constantinople to start his career as a lawyer, perhaps at the court of Theodosius II. While thus engaged he conceived, around the year 443 the project of writing a history of the Church.[6]

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Greek literature

Greek literature

Greek literature dates back from the ancient Greek literature, beginning in 800 BC, to the modern Greek literature of today.

Hilarion

Hilarion

Hilarion the Great (291–371) was an anchorite who spent most of his life in the desert according to the example of Anthony the Great (c. 251–356). While St Anthony is considered to have established Christian monasticism in the Egyptian desert, St Hilarion is considered by some to be the founder of Palestinian monasticism and venerated as a saint by the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church.

Lawyer

Lawyer

A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicitor, legal executive, or public servant — with each role having different functions and privileges. Working as a lawyer generally involves the practical application of abstract legal theories and knowledge to solve specific problems. Some lawyers also work primarily in advancing the interests of the law and legal profession.

Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople became the de facto capital of the Roman Empire upon its founding in 330, and became the de jure capital in AD 476 after the fall of Ravenna and the Western Roman Empire. It remained the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). Following the Turkish War of Independence, the Turkish capital then moved to Ankara. Officially renamed Istanbul in 1930, the city is today the largest city and financial centre of the Republic of Turkey (1923–present). It is also the largest city in Europe.

Theodosius II

Theodosius II

Theodosius II was Roman emperor for most of his life, proclaimed augustus as an infant in 402 and ruling as the eastern Empire's sole emperor after the death of his father Arcadius in 408. His reign was marked by the promulgation of the Theodosian law code and the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople. He also presided over the outbreak of two great Christological controversies, Nestorianism and Eutychianism.

Writings on Church history

Sozomen wrote two works on church history, of which only the second one is extant.

His first work covered the history of the Church, from the Ascension of Jesus to the defeat of Licinius in 323, in twelve books. His sources for it included Eusebius of Caesarea, the Clementine homilies, Hegesippus, and Sextus Julius Africanus.

Sozomen's second work continues approximately where his first work left off. He wrote it in Constantinople, around the years 440 to 443 and dedicated it to Emperor Theodosius II.

The work is structured into nine books, roughly arranged along the reigns of Roman Emperors:

  • Book I: from the conversion of Constantine I until the Council of Nicea (312–325)
  • Book II: from the Council of Nicea to Constantine's death (325–337)
  • Book III: from the death of Constantine I to the death of Constans I (337–350)
  • Book IV: from the death of Constans I to the death of Constantius II (350–361)
  • Book V: from the death of Constantius II to the death of Julian the Apostate (361–363)
  • Book VI: from the death of Julian to the death of Valens (363–375)
  • Book VII: from the death of Valens to the death of Theodosius I (375–395)
  • Book VIII: from the death of Theodosius I to the death of Arcadius (395–408).
  • Book IX: from the death of Arcadius to the accession of Valentinian III (408–25).

Book IX is incomplete. In his dedication of the work, he states that he intended cover up to the 17th consulate of Theodosius II, that is, to 439. The extant history ends about 425. Scholars disagree on why the end is missing. Albert Guldenpenning supposed that Sozomen himself suppressed the end of his work because in it he mentioned the Empress Aelia Eudocia,[4] who later fell into disgrace through her supposed adultery. However, it appears that Nicephorus, Theophanes, and Theodorus Lector actually read the end of Sozomen's work, according to their own histories later. Therefore, most scholars believe that the work actually came down to that year and that consequently it has reached us only in a damaged condition.[4]

Other writings

According to historian and scholar of Islam Michael Cook, Sozomen wrote that a group of "Saracens" (Arabs) in Palestine had adopted Jewish laws and customs after coming into contact with Jews and may have been (according to Cook) the forerunners of Islam and Muslims.[8]

Sources

Sozomen borrowed heavily from other sources for his work.

The source for about three fourths of his material was the writings of Socrates Scholasticus. The literary relationship of those writers appears everywhere.[9] Valesius asserted that Sozomen read Socrates, and Robert Hussey and Guldenpenning have proved this. For example, Socrates, in I.x, relates an anecdote which he had heard, and says that neither Eusebius nor any other author reports it, yet this anecdote is found in Sozomen, I.xxii, the similarity of diction showing that the text of Socrates was the source.

The extent of this dependence cannot be accurately determined. Sozomen used the work of Socrates as a guide to sources and order. In some matters, such as in regard to the Novatians, Sozomen is entirely dependent on Socrates.[6]

But Sozomen did not simply copy Socrates. He went back to the principal sources used by Socrates and other sources, often including more from them than Socrates did.

He used the writings of Eusebius, the first major Church historian. The Vita Constantini of Eusebius is expressly cited in the description of the vision of Constantine.

Sozomen appears also to have consulted the Historia Athanasii and also the works of Athanasius including the Vita Antonii. He completes the statements of Socrates from the Apologia contra Arianos, lix, sqq., and copies Athanasius' Adv. episcopos AEgypti, xviii-xix.

Rufinus is frequently used. Instructive in this respect is a comparison of Sozomen, Socrates, and Rufinus on the childhood of Athanasius. Rufinus is the original; Socrates expressly states that he follows Rufinus, while Sozomen knows Socrates' version, but is not satisfied with it and follows Rufinus more closely.

The ecclesiastical records used by Sozomen are principally taken from Sabinus, to whom he continually refers. In this way he uses records of the synods from that of Tyre (335) to that of Antioch in Caria (367).

For the period from Theodosius I, Sozomen stopped following the work of Socrates and followed Olympiodorus of Thebes, who was probably Sozomen's only secular source. A comparison with Zosimus, who also made use of Olympiodorus, seems to show that the whole ninth book of Sozomen, is mostly an abridged extract from Olympiodorus.

Sozomen used many other authorities. These include sources relating to Christianity in Persia, monkish histories, the Vita Martini of Sulpicius Severus, the works of Hilarius, logoi of Eustathius of Antioch, the letter of Cyril of Jerusalem to Constantius concerning the miraculous vision of the cross, and Palladius.

He also used oral tradition, adding some of the most distinctive value to his work.

Publication

The first printed (though untranslated) version of Sozomen, which was based on the Codex Regius of 1444, was that of Robert Estienne at Paris in 1544.[10] The first translated edition to be published was that of Christophorson, which appeared in Latin in Geneva in 1612.[11]

A noteworthy edition was done by Valesius (Cambridge, 1720), who used, besides the text of Stephens, a Codex Fucetianus (now at Paris, 1445), "Readings" of Savilius, and the indirect traditions of Theodorus Lector and of Cassiodorus-Epiphanius.

Hussey's posthumous edition (largely prepared for the press by John Barrow, who wrote the preface) is important, since in it the archetype of the Codex Regius, the Codex Baroccianus 142, is collated for the first time. But this manuscript was written by various hands and at various times and therefore is not equally authoritative in all its parts.

There is an excellent English translation published in 1846 (London, Samuel Bagster and sons), translator unnamed, later reprinted and credited to Chester David Hartranft (1839-1914), with a learned though somewhat diffuse introduction, in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, II (published New York, 1890).[6] (This text is available on-line at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.)

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Jesus

Jesus

Jesus, also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth, was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious leader; he is the central figure of Christianity, the world's largest religion. Virtually all Christians believe he is the incarnation of God the Son and the awaited Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible.

Licinius

Licinius

Valerius Licinianus Licinius was Roman emperor from 308 to 324. For most of his reign he was the colleague and rival of Constantine I, with whom he co-authored the Edict of Milan, AD 313, that granted official toleration to Christians in the Roman Empire. He was finally defeated at the Battle of Chrysopolis, and was later executed on the orders of Constantine I.

Hegesippus (chronicler)

Hegesippus (chronicler)

Hegesippus, also known as Hegesippus the Nazarene, was a Christian writer of the early Church who may, in spite of his Greek name, have been a Jewish convert and certainly wrote against heresies of the Gnostics and of Marcion. The dates that Hegesippus flourished are insecurely fixed by the statement of Eusebius that the death and apotheosis of Antinous (130) occurred in Hegesippus' lifetime, and that he came to Rome under Pope Anicetus and wrote in the time of Pope Eleuterus.

Sextus Julius Africanus

Sextus Julius Africanus

Sextus Julius Africanus was a Christian traveler and historian of the late second and early third centuries. He is important chiefly because of his influence on Eusebius, on all the later writers of Church history among the Church Fathers, and on the whole Greek school of chroniclers.

Theodosius II

Theodosius II

Theodosius II was Roman emperor for most of his life, proclaimed augustus as an infant in 402 and ruling as the eastern Empire's sole emperor after the death of his father Arcadius in 408. His reign was marked by the promulgation of the Theodosian law code and the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople. He also presided over the outbreak of two great Christological controversies, Nestorianism and Eutychianism.

First Council of Nicaea

First Council of Nicaea

The First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325.

Constantius II

Constantius II

Constantius II was Roman emperor from 337 to 361. His reign saw constant warfare on the borders against the Sasanian Empire and Germanic peoples, while internally the Roman Empire went through repeated civil wars, court intrigues, and usurpations. His religious policies inflamed domestic conflicts that would continue after his death.

Valens

Valens

Valens was Roman emperor from 364 to 378. Following a largely unremarkable military career, he was named co-emperor by his elder brother Valentinian I, who gave him the eastern half of the Roman Empire to rule. In 378, Valens was defeated and killed at the Battle of Adrianople against the invading Goths, which astonished contemporaries and marked the beginning of barbarian encroachment into Roman territory.

Theodosius I

Theodosius I

Theodosius I, also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two civil wars, and was instrumental in establishing the creed of Nicaea as the orthodox doctrine for Christianity. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule the entire Roman Empire before its administration was permanently split between two separate courts.

Arcadius

Arcadius

Arcadius was Roman emperor from 383 to his death in 408. He was the eldest son of the Augustus Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and the brother of Honorius. Arcadius ruled the eastern half of the empire from 395, when their father died, while Honorius ruled the west. A weak ruler, his reign was dominated by a series of powerful ministers and by his wife, Aelia Eudoxia.

Valentinian III

Valentinian III

Valentinian III was Roman emperor in the West from 425 to 455. Made emperor in childhood, his reign over the Roman Empire was one of the longest, but was dominated by powerful generals vying for power amid civil wars and the invasions of Late Antiquity's Migration Period, including the campaigns of Attila the Hun.

Aelia Eudocia

Aelia Eudocia

Aelia Eudocia Augusta, also called Saint Eudocia, was an Eastern Roman empress by marriage to Emperor Theodosius II, and a prominent Greek historical figure in understanding the rise of Christianity during the beginning of the Byzantine Empire. Eudocia lived in a world where Greek paganism and Christianity existed side by side with both pagans and non-orthodox Christians being persecuted. Although Eudocia's work has been mostly ignored by modern scholars, her poetry and literary work are great examples of how her Christian faith and Greek heritage/upbringing were intertwined, exemplifying a legacy that the Roman Empire left behind on the Christian world.

Source: "Sozomen", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, February 14th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sozomen.

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Further Reading

Eusebius

First Council of Nicaea

Didymus the Blind

Helena, mother of Constantine I

Paul I of Constantinople

Arius

Massacre of Thessalonica

Church History (Eusebius)

Plinta

Valentinianus Galates
Notes
  1. ^ Attested corruptions of his name include Salminius and Salaminius.[1][2][3]
References

Citations

  1. ^ Joseph Bidez & Günther Christian Hansen, Sozomenus Kirchengeschichte (Verlag, 1995), pp. lxiv–lxv
  2. ^ Martindale, PLRE 2, p. 1023
  3. ^ RE III A.1 (1927), col. 1240
  4. ^ a b c d e Harnack & McGiffert 1911, p. 525.
  5. ^ Sozomenus, Historia Ecclesiastica, Bk.1, Chap. 15
  6. ^ a b c d Healy 1912.
  7. ^ "Salaminius Hermias Sozomen: Historian of the Christian Church". Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Retrieved 17 Nov 2022.
  8. ^ Cook 2000, p. 141.
  9. ^ For a recent discussion of their relationship see H. Leppin, "The Church Historians (I): Socrates, Sozomenus, and Theodoretus", in Gabriele Marasco, Greek & Roman Historiography in Late Antiquity, Brill, 2003, pp. 219-254.
  10. ^ Sozomenus, Salaminius Hermias; Haratranft, Chester D. (1890). The Ecclesiastical History, Comprising a History of the Church, from A.D. 323 to A.D. 425 (PDF). Buffalo. p. 372. Retrieved 17 Nov 2022.
  11. ^ Hartranft. The Ecclesiastical History (PDF).

Sources

Attribution:

Further reading
  • On ethnic identity and ecclesiastical politics in Sozomen, see:
    • Argov, Eran I. (2005). "A Church Historian in Search of an Identity: Aspects of Early Byzantine Palestine in Sozomen's Historia Ecclesiastica". Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum. 9: 367–396.
  • The English translation of the Ecclesiastical History ascribed to Chester D. Hartranft is available online:
    • Sozomen (1890). "Ecclesiastical History". In Schaff, Philip; Wace, Henry (eds.). Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series. Vol. 2. Translated by Chester D. Hartranft. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co. Retrieved 13 March 2016 – via New Advent.
  • The English translation of the Ecclesiastical History by Edward Walford as originally published in the Bohn Ecclesiastical Library, is available in book form:


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