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Zosimus (fl. 450–500 CE) can be dated to the second half of the 5th or in the first two decades of the 6th century CE. Before writing his history, he had been a counsel to the crown ( advocatus fisci), the highest position for a barrister, and he carried the honorary title of comes (“count”). He must therefore have been well trained in rhetoric and law. His history is entitled νέα ἱστορία/ nea historia ( New History), the meaning of which is unclear (contemporary history? history of a new kind?). It is the only work of history from late antiquity that expresses an anti-Christian vision of decline.Me…

ca 500-550 ad. Byzantium. An inhabitant of Miletus (modern Turkey), Hesychius is the author of three works. His world history in six books started with the reign of the Assyrian king Belos and focussed mainly on Roman history. It ended with the death of the emperor Anastasius I. The starting point may indicate influence of Castor of Rhodes. The section known as the Πάτρια κατὰ Ἡσύχιον (Patria according to Hesychius) is preserved in a single 9th-century manuscript (Heidelberg, UB, gr. 398); otherwise only a few fragments survive. The Πάτρια, which may be abridged and inte…

4th/5th century. Palestine. Since the end of the 4th century, Gelasius, a nephew of bishop Cyril of Jerusalem (348-87) and himself bishop of Caesarea from 367 to before September 400, has been credited with the authorship of a Greek ἐκκλησιαστικὴ ἱστορία (church history) in continuation of Eusebius' ecclesiastical history (see also Photius, Bibliotheca, 88) extending from 325 to Gelasius' own time. If this traditional view is correct, the work in question would be the first history of the Church written after Eusebius, and it would almost certain…

ca 380-450. Byzantium (Thrace). Lived and wrote in Constantinople. Published shortly after 439, Socrates' church history is the first and most sober continuation of that of Eusebius. He is sympathetic towards the Novatians, Origenism and the anti-Chrysostomian party in the church of Constantinople.The seven books of Socrates' history focus on events in the East. In the earlier books the major topic is the Arian controversy. The later books progressively concentrate on Constantinople, where Socrates lived. For events up to the reign of Theodosius I, Rufinus is the major source. …

[Salminius Hermias Sozomenus] 400-50. Palestine. Born in Bethelea near Gaza and probably of Arab or Syriac origin, Sozomen moved to Constantinople for a career as a lawyer. About 445 he wrote a Church History in nine books, in continuation of Eusebius of Caesarea and in imitation of Socrates scholasticus, whose time frame (325-439) he copied. As shown by the dedication to Theodosius II and other panegyrical passages, his aim was to draw the attention of the court. He probably died before he could reap the fruits of his efforts, as the last book is unfinis…

ca 393-466. Syria. Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus, wrote his Greek-language Church History in the 440s, when he was involved in the Monophysite controversy. He had earlier been entangled in the Nestorian controversy, in which he sided with Nestorius before giving in to imperial pressure in 433. He was condemned by the council of Ephesus (449), but was rehabilitated in 451 at Chalcedon. Continuing Eusebius, his history is much more polemical than those of Socrates scholasticus and Sozomen and aims at retracing what he sees as orthodoxy back to the early 4th century. Writing in a highly …