Between Authority and Orthodoxy: Historical Perspectives and Narrative Strategies in Sozomen of Bethelia's Historia Ecclesiastica

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation is a study of Sozomen of Bethelia's HISTORIA ECCLESIASTICA . Sozomen (Salamanes Hermias Sozomenos ca. 370 - after 450) was a lawyer, a native of Bethelia (present day Beit Lahiye near Gaza in Palestine) who settled in Constantinople. His ecclesiastical history was intended to cover the period between 324 and 439, but ends abruptly at 425, possibly due to natural causes. The present dissertation looks at Sozomen's historical perspectives which, as is argued, are shaped by the legacy of Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. 260-339), the inventor of the genre of Historia Ecclesiastica, as well as the Bible. Sozomen's narrative strategies and his authorial voice are reflecting the Zeitgeist of the 440's in the Eastern Roman Empire under Theodosius II, a period of religious uncertainty and doctrinal conflicts. Sozomen. a follower of Nicene orthodoxy, is nonetheless an ambivalent historian who observes with irony the relations of Church and State, treats the myth of Constantine I with an uncommon combination of reverence and displeasure, and dedicates large portions of his work to the heroic legacy of Athanasius of Alexandria (ca. 296- 373) and John Chrysostom (347-407) The present study seeks to look afresh at a major historical work, the riches of which were mined by scholars of late antiquity but was hardly ever studied on its own merits.