SOZOMEN. - Salamanes Hermias, according to Photius (Bibl., 30). Ecclesiastical historian, born into a Christian family in the village of Bethelia near Gaza and raised in an environment in which memories of the monk Hilarion were still alive. The dates of his birth and death are unknown.

He became a lawyer and lived in Constantinople, where he dedicated his Ecclesiastical History to the emperor Theodosius II

This history had been preceded (Hist. eccl., I, 11, 12) by a more concise one that narrated the history of the Church from the Ascension up to Licinius, which has been lost. The Ecclesiastical History consisted of nine books and was meant to reach the year 439; the preserved text goes up to 425; for unknown reasons the end is missing (perhaps half of a book).

The work was written after 443 and presupposes knowledge of the Ecclesiastical History of Socrates. Besides Socrates, the author used synodal writings, letters of the emperors, laws and other documents. He found this official material for the most part in the collection of Sabinus (cf. P. Batiffol, Sozombne et Sabinos, in Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 7 [1898], p. 265 ff.) and in the Historia Athanasii (P. Batiffol, Le Synodikon de st Athanase, ibid., 10 [1901], p. 128 ff.); moreover he knew works of Athanasius, Eusebius and Rufinus. For profane history he depends on Olympiodorus. S. was a jurist and not a theologian and therefore not always clear in his judgment, but he was a pious man, an admirer of the ascetic life. Photius is of the opinion that the work of S. surpassed that of Socrates stylistically.

Bibliography7 works

BIBL.: ed. PG. 67: Hussey, Oxford 1860, in 3 vols. Monographs: L. Jupp, Quellen und Untersuch. zu den griechischen Kirchenhistorikern (Flecheisens Jahrbücher für class. Philol., Supplement, 14), Leipzig 1885, pp. 137-54; G. Schoo, Die Quellen des Kirchenhistorikers S., Berlin 1911; I. Bidez, La tradition manuscrite de Sozombne et la Tripartite de Théodore le Lecteur, Leipzig 1908; id., Le texte du prologue de S. et de ses chapitres VI, 28-34, in Sitzungsberichte Berliner Akad., 1935; Eltester, s. v. in Pauly-Wissowa, II, III, coll. 1240-48; G. Loeschcke, in Hauch's R. E., XVIII, p. 451 ff.; A. Siegmund, Die Überlieferung der griechisch-christ. Liter. in der latein. Kirche, Munich-Pasing 1949, p. 55 ff.

Erik Peterson

@incollection{ec11_sozomeno, author = {Peterson, Erik}, title = {Sozomeno}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {1016--1017}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/sozomeno} }

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