Editing Socrates of Constantinople

{{Short description|Greek Christian church historian}}
{{more footnotes|date=April 2019}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Socrates of Constantinople
| birth_name       = Socrates
| birth_date       = 380
| birth_place      = [[Constantinople]], [[Eastern Roman Empire]]<br />(modern-day [[Istanbul]], [[Turkey]])
| death_date       = 439 (aged c. 59)
| death_place      = 
| occupation       = [[Historian]]
| nationality      = 
| period           = [[Theodosian dynasty]]
| movement         = 
| notableworks     = 
}}
'''Socrates of Constantinople''' ({{c.}} 380 – after 439), also known as '''Socrates Scholasticus''' ({{langx|grc|Σωκράτης ὁ Σχολαστικός}}<ref>The traditional epithet "Socrates Scholasticus" is not well-founded in any early tradition, according to his most recent editor, Theresa Urbainczyk, ''Socrates of Constantinople: Historian of Church and State'' (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press) 1997. {{ISBN|0-472-10737-2}}. On the title pages of some surviving manuscripts he is designated  ''scholastikos'' ("schooled").</ref>), was a 5th-century [[Greeks|Greek]] [[Christians|Christian]] [[church historian]], a contemporary of [[Sozomen]] and [[Theodoret]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Potter|first=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a3IRDAAAQBAJ&pg=PR12|title=Constantine the Emperor|date=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-023162-0|pages=12|language=en|quote=Socrates of Constantinople, Greek historian [...]}}</ref>

He is the author of a ''Historia Ecclesiastica'' ("Church History", Ἐκκλησιαστική Ἱστορία) which covers the [[history of late ancient Christianity]] during the years 305 to 439.

==Life==
He was born in [[Constantinople]]. Even in ancient times, nothing seems to have been known of his life except what can be gathered from notices in his ''Historia Ecclesiastica'', which departed from its ostensible model, [[Eusebius of Caesarea]], in emphasizing the place of the emperor in church affairs and in giving secular as well as church history.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

Socrates' teachers, noted in his prefaces, were the grammarians [[Helladius (grammarian)|Helladius]] and [[Ammonius Grammaticus|Ammonius]], who came to [[Constantinople]] from [[Alexandria]], where in 391 they had been involved in a violent revolt that culminated in the destruction of the [[Serapeum of Alexandria]].{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

It is not proved that Socrates of Constantinople later profited from the teachings of the [[sophist]] [[Troilus (sophist)|Troilus]]. No certainty exists as to Socrates' precise vocation, though it may be inferred from his work that he was a layman.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

In later years, he traveled and visited, among other places, [[Paphlagonia]] and [[Cyprus]].<ref>'Hist. Eccl.'' 1.12.8, 2.33.30.</ref>

== The ''Historia Ecclesiastica'' ==
The history covers the years 305 to 439, and experts believe it was finished in 439 or soon thereafter, and certainly during the lifetime of Emperor [[Theodosius II]], i.e., before 450. The purpose of the history is to continue the work of [[Eusebius of Caesarea]] (1.1). It relates in simple [[Medieval Greek|Greek]] language what the Church experienced from the days of [[Constantine I (emperor)|Constantine]] to the writer's time. Ecclesiastical dissensions occupy the foreground, for when the Church is at peace, there is nothing for the church historian to relate (7.48.7). In the preface to Book 5, Socrates defends dealing with [[Arianism]] and with political events in addition to writing about the church.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

Socrates' account is in many respects well-balanced. He is careful not to use hyperbolic titles when referring to prominent personalities in the church and the government and he even criticizes Eusebius for his excessive praises to Emperor [[Constantine the Great]] in his ''[[Life of Constantine|Vita Constantini]]''.<ref>"[Eusebius was] more intent on the rhetorical finish of his composition and the praises of the Emperor, than on an accurate statement of facts"

Socrates Scholasticus, ''Historia Ecclesiastica'', Book 1, Chapter 1</ref>

The ''Historia Ecclesiastica'' is one of the few sources of information about [[Hypatia]], the female mathematician and philosopher of Alexandria, who was brutally murdered by a mob, allegedly by order of Patriarch [[Cyril of Alexandria]]. Socrates presents Hypatia's murder as entirely politically motivated and makes no mention of any role that Hypatia's neoplatonism might have played in her death, arguing instead that she was killed for supporting local prefect [[Orestes (prefect of Egypt)|Orestes]] in his political struggle against Cyril.<ref>{{citation|last1=Cameron|first1=Alan|last2=Long|first2=Jacqueline|last3=Sherry|first3=Lee|author1-link=Alan Cameron (classical scholar)|date=1993|title=Barbarians and Politics at the Court of Arcadius|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T6t44B0-a98C&pg=PA59|location=Berkeley and Los Angeles|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-06550-5|page=59}}</ref><ref>''Ecclesiastical History'', [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/hypatia.html Bk VII: Chap. 15] (miscited as VI:15).</ref> Socrates unequivocally condemns the actions of the mob, declaring, "Surely nothing can be farther from the spirit of Christianity than the allowance of massacres, fights, and transactions of that sort."<ref>{{citation|last=Novak| first=Ralph Martin Jr. |title=Christianity and the Roman Empire: Background Texts|date=2010|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|location=Harrisburg, PA|isbn=978-1-56338-347-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LuhZyh1_j6oC&pg=PA240|page=240}}</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Watts|first=Edward J.|date=2008|orig-year=2006|title=City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MKolDQAAQBAJ|location=Berkeley and Los Angeles|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0520258167|page=199}}</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Watts|first=Edward J.|date=2017|title=Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0KL_DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA119|location=Oxford, England|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0190659141|page=117}}</ref>

Socrates is often assumed to have been a follower of [[Novatianism]], but this is based on the fact that he gives a lot of details about the Novatianists, and speaks of them in generous terms, as he does of Arians and other groups. He speaks of himself as belonging to the church.<ref>[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202.ii.iii.ii.html Rev. A. C. Zenos, "Life of Socrates,"] A Selected Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. ii, eds. Henry Wace and Philip Schaff, (New York: Christian, 1887-1900), p. x-xi</ref>

Socrates asserts that he owed the impulse to write his work to a certain Theodorus, who is alluded to in the [[proemium]] to the second book as "a holy man of [[God]]" and seems therefore to have been a [[monk]] or one of the higher [[clergy]]. The contemporary historians [[Sozomen]] and [[Theodoret]] were combined with Socrates in a sixth-century compilation, which has obscured their differences until recently, when their individual portrayals of the series of Christian emperors were distinguished one from another and contrasted by Hartmut Leppin, ''Von Constantin dem Großen zu Theodosius II'' (Göttingen 1996).

===Editions and translations===
The ''Historia Ecclesiastica'' was first edited in Greek by [[Robert Estienne]], on the basis of ''Codex Regius'' 1443 (Paris, 1544); a translation into Latin by Johannes Christophorson (1612) is important for its variant readings. The fundamental early modern edition, however, was produced by [[Henri Valois|Henricus Valesius]] (Henri Valois) (Paris, 1668), who used the ''Codex Regius'', a Codex Vaticanus, and a Codex Florentinus, and also employed the indirect tradition of [[Theodorus Lector]] (''Codex Leonis Alladi'').

The text was edited in ''[[Patrologia Graeca]]'' vol. 67 (online at [http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/04z/z_0380-0440__Socrates_Scholasticus__Historia_ecclesiastica_%28MPG_067_0030_0842%29__GM.pdf.html documentacatholicaomnia.eu]). The new critical edition of the text is edited by G. C. Hansen, and published in the series ''Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller'' (Berlin:Akademie Verlag) 1995. An English translation by A. C. Zenos was published in '' [[Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers]]'', Second Series, Vol. 2. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wallace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890.)  (online editions: [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2601.htm newadvent.org] [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202.html ccel.org][https://archive.today/20130129093928/http://www.munseys.com/book/7649/ECCLESIASTICAL_HISTORY,_THE munseys.com] . More recently (2004-2007), Socrates' ''History'' has been published in four bilingual (Greek/Latin and French) volumes by [[Pierre Maraval]] in the ''[[Sources Chrétiennes]]'' collection.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
 
==References==
*Theresa Urbainczyk, ''Socrates of Constantinople'', [[University of Michigan Press]], Ann Arbor 1997 {{ISBN|0-4721-0737-2}}

== External links ==
{{commons category|Socrates Scholasticus}}
{{EB1911 Poster|Socrates (historian)|Socrates of Constantinople}}
*{{Wikisourcelang-inline|el|Σωκράτης ο Σχολαστικός|Σωκράτης ὁ Σχολαστικός}}
*[http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/30_20_0380-0440-_Socrates_Scholasticus.html Greek Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Graeca with analytical indexes]

{{Byzantine historians}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Socrates Of Constantinople}}
[[Category:Writers from Constantinople]]
[[Category:380 births]]
[[Category:5th-century deaths]]
[[Category:5th-century Christians]]
[[Category:Historians of the Catholic Church]]
[[Category:5th-century Byzantine historians]]
[[Category:Church Fathers]]
[[Category:Historians of Christianity]]
[[Category:Greek-language historians from the Roman Empire]]
[[Category:Hypatia]]