Philostorgius

Philostorgius (Φιλοστόργιος), an Eastern ecclesiastical historian of some note, was a native of Borissus, in Cappadocia. He was the son of Carterius and Eulampia, and was born in the reign of Valentinian and Valens, in A.D. 358, according to Gothofredus (Proleg. ad Philost. page 5, etc.), about A.D. 367, according to Vossius (De Hist. Gr. page 314). He was twenty years old when Eunomius (q.v.) was expelled from Caesarea. He was educated at Constantinople, and, together with his father, warmly embraced the doctrines of Eunomius. Philostorgilus wrote an ecclesiastical history from the heresy of Arius, in A.D. 300, to the period when Theodosius the Younger conferred the empire of the West on Valentinian the Younger (A.D. 425). The work, composed in twelve books, began respectively with the twelve letters of his name, so as to form a sort of acrostic. In this history he lost no opportunity of extolling the Arians and Eunomians, while he overwhelmed the orthodox party with abuse, with the single exception of Gregory of Nazianzum. Photius charges Philostorgius with introducing gross misrepresentations and unfounded statements, and says that the work is not a history, but a panegyric upon the heretics. Philostorgius, nevertheless, was a man of learning. and was possessed of considerable geographical and astronomical knowledge. Being a heretic, it is not to be wondered at that his work has not come down to us. An abstract of it, however, was made by Photius in a separate work, which has been preserved. Photius characterizes him as bering elegant in his style, making use of figurative expressions, though not in excess. His figures were, however, sometimes harsh and far-fetched, and his narrative involved and indistinct (Phot. Bibl. cod. 40). Photius's abstract was published at Geneva in 1643 by Jac. Godefroi, or Gothofredus, entitled Ecclesiastices historiae, a Constantino M. Antique initiis ad sua usque tempora., libri 12 Photio in epitomen contraci; nunc primum editi a Jacobo Gothofredo, Gr. et Lat. cum supplementis nonnullis, indiceque accurato, ex prolixioribus dissertationibus (Lugd. 1643, 4to), and in a somewhat corrected form, with a new Latin translation, by H. Valesius (Paris, 1673), together with the ecclesiastical history of Theodoritus, Evagrius, and Theodorus; also by Reading, Ex ecclesiasticis Philostorgii historiis epitome, et fragmenta (Cantabr. 1720). There is also a French version: Abrege de l'Histoire de l'Eglise de Philostorge (Paris, 1676). See Fabricius, Bibl. Gr. 7:420, etc.; Vossius, De Hist. Gr. page 313, etc.; Scholl, Gesch. der Griech. Lit. 3:313. — Smith, Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Biog. s.v. See Dowling, Introd. to Church Hist.; Hook, Eccles. Biog. 8:72; Hagenbach, Hist. of Doctrines, 1:328; Jortin, Remarks, 2:121; Stanley, Hist. of East. Ch. page 168; Staudlin, Gesch. d. Kirchengesch. page 72.