Historia Ecclesiastica: Sozomenos spoke of Greeks, Macedonians and Illyrians

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 Today we quote a short passage from an old church history from the fifth century. This ancient church history was written by the church historian Sozomenos.

Brief introduction, who was Sozomenos?

Salamanes Hermeias Sozomenos (born around 400 AD, died around 450) was an important church historian of late antiquity, of "Greek" origin.



Sozomenos came from a small village with the (today's) name Bait Lahiya in Gaza (then called Bethelia), which at that time belonged to the Eastern Roman Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire). He had an Orthodox Christian upbringing, had a legal education and was interested in monasticism; he also stayed for some time in the west of the Roman Empire.

A church history, Historia Ecclesiastica, dedicated to Theodosius II by Sozomenos is preserved in nine books, of which book 9 is only partially preserved. It deals with the period from 324 to 439 (following Eusebius) and is a not unimportant source for this period.

And it is precisely from this work that we are quoting a small passage today. More specifically, from Book 1, Chapter 2.

Church history - Historia Ecclesiastica

The work Historia Ecclesiastica stands in a similar tradition as the church histories of Theodoret and Socrates Scholastikos, whose work Sozomenos evidently received a lot of attention.

Because of their similarities, the three works are usually viewed together, even if recent research has emphasized the differences between them. Due to the Latin translation suggested by Cassiodorus, they also had a great impact in the West, which lasted throughout the Middle Ages (see the following picture below, with the bilingual version in 1/3 columns).



Characteristic of Sozomenos is his endeavor to detach the genre of ecclesiastical history from its ties to the chroniclery and to bring it closer to classical Greek historiography. So he drew on the extensive (but lost) classicist historical work of the pagan Olympiodorus of Thebes as an important source, although he probably arranged the material according to his views; In addition to church history in the narrower sense, it also deals with profane historical events.

Christians in the West: Greeks, Macedonians, Illyrians

As you could read about Sozomenos above, he probably lived in the years 400 to 450. This means roughly more than 550 years after the destruction of the Kingdom of Macedonia in 168 BC and the division of Macedonia by the Romans.

Although the Romans actually fought on the side of the Greeks to free them from the Macedonian yoke, they finally occupied the Greeks themselves. The Illyrians experienced the same fate in unison, heralded by the decline of Macedonian dominance.

Despite these circumstances, Sozomenos named the "Christians from the West" in his work after the old, well-known ethnonyms: Greeks, Macedonians, Illyrians.

But honestly. If you look closely (in the screenshot), in the following direct Greek-Latin translation, the Greeks are referred to as "Ellines" in the Greek-language text. Whereas in the Latin version the term "Achaei" (for Achaeans) appears. 

After the occupation by the Romans, the Balkans were administratively redistributed by the Romans, the area south of Mount Olympus (i.e. classical Greece) was called Achaia by the Romans. Hence the name Achaeans for the Greeks in the translation.

So we read in Book 1, Chapter 2 (according to the English translation by Chester D. Hartranft.):


...Of the Bishops of the Large Towns in the Reign of Constantine; and how, from fear of Licinius, Christianity was professed cautiously in the East as far as Libya, while in the West, through the Favor of Constantine, it was professed with Freedom.

During the consulate of Constantine Cæsar and Crispus Cæsar, Silvester governed the Church of Rome; Alexander, that of Alexandria; and Macarius, that of Jerusalem. Not one, since Romanus, had been appointed over the Church of Antioch on the Orontes; for the persecution it appears, had prevented the ceremony of ordination from taking place. The bishops assembled at Nicæa not long after were, however, so sensible of the purity of the life and doctrines of Eustathius, that they adjudged him worthy to fill the apostolic see; although he was then bishop of the neighboring Beroea, they translated him to Antioch. [cf. Socrates, i. 23, 24.]

The Christians of the East, as far as Libya on the borders of Egypt, did not dare to meet openly as a church; for Licinius had withdrawn his favor from them; but the Christians of the West, the Greeks, the Macedonians, and the Illyrians, met for worship in safety through the protection of Constantine, who was then at the head of the Roman Empire. ...

Literature cited and used:

  • The St. Pachomius Orthodox Library, St. Gorazd of Prague, 2009
  • Historia Ecclesiastica (screenshots)
  • Wikipedia German, for the introduction passage about Sozomenos

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