Ecclesiastical writer
c. 380–439 · 5th c. · 1 work
Socrates of Constantinople, known as Socrates Scholasticus (c. 380 – after 439), was a Greek church historian of the early fifth century. He spent most of his life in Constantinople, where he was educated by the grammarians Helladius and Ammonius, pagan teachers who had fled Alexandria. The epithet "scholastikos" attached to his name indicates that he was a lawyer or legal advocate, and he is notable as the first known layman, rather than a cleric, to write a history of the Church.
His principal work, the "Ecclesiastical History" (Historia Ecclesiastica), is a Greek narrative in seven books that he conceived as a continuation of the church history of Eusebius of Caesarea. It covers the period from 305 to 439, beginning with the accession of Constantine and extending into the reign of Theodosius II. Each of the seven books is organized around the reign of a successive emperor, a structure that reflects his interest in tying ecclesiastical affairs to the imperial throne.
Socrates is valued for his comparatively sober and document-citing method. He drew on original primary materials, including the acts of councils, the chronicle of Constantinople, and the letters of emperors and bishops, and he made an effort to consult eyewitnesses and to weigh his sources critically. Historians generally regard him as more careful and less credulous than his contemporaries Sozomen and Theodoret, writing in a plain, unadorned style intended for learned and unlearned readers alike.
A distinctive feature of his history is the deliberate linking of church events to secular and political history, departing from the more narrowly ecclesiastical focus of Eusebius. Because he reproduces so many official documents and conciliar texts, his work is an indispensable primary source for the Arian controversy and for the life of the Church in the fourth and fifth centuries. Through a Latin epitome ascribed to Cassiodorus and Epiphanius, it also transmitted much of this knowledge to the medieval Western Church.
Sources: Encyclopædia Britannica — Socrates (Byzantine historian) · Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent) — Socrates · Encyclopedia.com — Socrates Scholasticus