Ecclesiastical writer
c. 400–450 · 5th c. · 1 work
Salminius Hermias Sozomen (c. 400 – c. 450) was a Greek church historian born at Bethelia, a small town near Gaza in Palestine, in the last quarter of the fourth century. He came from a devout Christian family; by his own account, his grandfather had embraced the faith after witnessing a miracle attributed to St. Hilarion, and the household remained faithful through periods of persecution. His early education was directed by the monks of his native region, an upbringing that left a lasting mark on his later sympathy for the monastic life.
Sozomen received the literary and legal formation typical of a young man destined for the bar, study traditionally associated with the famous law school at Berytus (Beirut). He afterward settled at Constantinople, probably near the beginning of the fifth century, where he practiced as a lawyer. It was while engaged in this profession, in the imperial capital under the house of Theodosius, that he conceived the project of writing a history of the Christian Church.
His principal work, the Ecclesiastical History (Historia ecclesiastica), survives in nine books and was dedicated to the emperor Theodosius II. It was designed to continue the history of Eusebius and to cover the period from roughly 324 to 439, though the extant text breaks off around 425, leaving open whether the conclusion was lost or suppressed. An earlier preliminary epitome, summarizing Christianity from the Ascension to 323, has not survived.
Sozomen wrote at the same time and on the same period as his elder contemporary Socrates Scholasticus, and there is no doubt that he drew extensively on Socrates' work, often paralleling it closely. Yet he recast the material in a more polished classical style for an educated lay readership and added much of his own, especially concerning monasticism and the spread of Christianity through missionary activity. Though judged less critical and more inclined to legendary material than Socrates, his independent sources and distinctive emphases make him a valuable fifth-century witness to the Church of the fourth and early fifth centuries.
Sources: Encyclopædia Britannica — Sozomen · Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent) — Salminius Hermias Sozomen · Encyclopedia.com — Sozomen