SOZOMEN

Greek Church historian; b. Bethelia near Gaza, Palestine, c. 400; d. Constantinople, c. 450. He was born of a Christian family converted by St. Hilarion. Salaminius Hermias Sozomen received his primary religious education in a monastery, studied law at Beirut, and practiced law in Constantinople under Theodosius II. He speaks of a historical epitome covering the history of the Church from the birth of Christ to the defeat of Licinius (323), but this work is lost. His Ecclesiastical History, written between 439 and 450 and dedicated to theodosius ii, covers the period from 324 to 439 in nine books; however, the years 425 to 439 are missing. Sozomen frequently follows his contemporary socrates, Historian, almost verbatim, but interpolates archival and Syriac material unknown to Socrates, for example, the persecution of the Christians in Persia under Sapor II, evidently based on the Acts of the Persian Martyrs. Stylistically, his work is superior to that of Socrates, but it is less critical and occasionally incorporates legendary material. A possible explanation for his less-critical sense arises from his desire to present monasticism as a guideline for his history of the Church.

Bibliography: Patrologia Graeca, ed. j. p. migne (Paris 1857–66) 67:844–1630. r. hussey, ed., Ecclesiastica historia, 3 v. (Oxford 1960). j. quasten, Patrology, 3 v. (Westminster, Md. 1950–) 3:534–536. b. altaner, Patrology, tr. h. graef from the 5th German ed. (New York 1960) 274. g. bardy, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant, 15 v. (Paris 1903–50; Tables générales 1951–) 14.2:2469–71. n. h. baynes, Journal of Theological Studies 49 (1948) 165–168. w. telfer, ibid. 50 (1949) 187–191. p. batiffol, "Sozomène et Sabinos," Byzantinische Zeitschrift 7 (1898) 265–284. g. schoo, Die Quellen des Kirchenhistorikers Sozomenos (Berlin 1911). j. bidez, La Tradition manuscrite de Sozomène et la Tripartite de Théodore le Lecteur (Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 32.2b; 1908). w. eltester, Paulys Realenzyklopädie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, ed. g. wissowa, et al. (Stuttgart 1893–) 3A.1 (1927) 1240–48.

[f. chiovaro]