SOCRATES. – Ecclesiastical historian, born and active in Constantinople where he practiced as a legal procurator (scholasticus). In his youth he had been a pupil of the grammarians Helladius and Ammonius (Hist. eccl., V, 16, 9), who had come to Constantinople around 390.
His Ecclesiastical History, covering the years 305–439, was published in two editions. Realizing that he could not rely solely on Rufinus as a source, he revised the first two books (v. H. Edmonds, Zweite Auflage im Altertum, Leipzig 1941, p. 372 ff): but even for Book VI there are two recensions. His sources included Rufinus, Eusebius, Athanasius, the collection of synodal acts by Sabinus, Eutropius, and information coming from the Novatians, for whom he shows such interest that some took him for a Novatianist; yet in V, 20 he lists the Novatians among other heretics (on the Novatian source for the history of Paul of Constantinople, see recently W. Telfer in Harvard Theol. Rev., 43, [1950], p. 42 ff.). The political aspect of theological disputes did not escape Socrates: he defends Origen (VI, 13); in the matter of the deposition of St. John Chrysostom he suspends his judgment (VI, 19, 8).