Socrates Scholasticus

Socrates Scholasticus (c. 380 – after 439) was a lay church historian born and based in Constantinople. He was educated by the Alexandrian grammarians Helladius and Ammonius, who had fled to Constantinople following the destruction of the Serapeum in 391. The traditional epithet "Scholasticus" — often rendered "the Advocate" and taken to mean he trained as a lawyer — is not well attested in the early manuscript tradition; the manuscripts call him simply scholastikos ("schooled"), and his precise vocation remains uncertain. His seven-book Historia Ecclesiastica continues Eusebius from 305 to 439, chronicling the Arian controversy, imperial councils, and the reigns of the Theodosian dynasty with notable even-handedness toward heterodox groups including the Novatians. He records having personally visited Paphlagonia — where he met a Novatian bishop at Pompeiopolis — and Cyprus, where he observed local liturgical customs. He lived and wrote in Constantinople, dying sometime after 439 and before 450.