Church History (epitome by Photius)
A history of the church from the rise of Arius to the early fifth century, written from the side that rejected the Nicene creed. The original is lost; it is known from the hostile summary made by Photius, patriarch of Constantinople, in the ninth century.
Philostorgius came from Cappadocia and belonged to the party of Eunomius, which rejected the Nicene formula. His history told the story of the fourth century from that side. It was not preserved. What remains is the abstract made by Photius, who, as the translator notes, inveighs against the author throughout as a heretic.
Each statement therefore comes through two filters: a partisan author, and a summariser who disliked him and shortened what he read. On Ulfilas Philostorgius writes with sympathy, and he says, as Socrates does, that Ulfilas devised the Gothic letters and translated the Scriptures (2.5). The epitome names the emperor of the embassy as Constantine; whether that is right is part of the debate over the date of the ordination.
Cited in
- about AD 341, estimated date