EUSEBIUS

The father of ecclesiastical history. He was born at Caesarea in Phoe nicia in 264 A.D. In 315 he became bishop of that city, and died in 340. He was one of the most learned men of his time, and holds a high position both among the historians and the apologists of Christianity, His greatest work is his Church History. This work is in ten books, beginning with the rise of Christianity, and coming down to 314 A.D. It was much used by later writers, and was, about 403 A.D., translated into Latin by Tyrannius Rufinus of Aquileia, who continued it down to the death of Theodosius (A.D. 395). The apologetic writings of Eusebius are the Praeparatio Evangelica in fifteen books, and the Demonstratio Evangelica in twenty. They are both, but especially the former, a rich storehouse of information on antiquity, particularly on the philosophy and religion of the Greeks. Of still greater importance is his Chronicle (Chronicon), a work founded upon extracts from the now lost writings of previous historians. Its first book, the Chronographia, contains a general ethnographical history of the world, arranged from the creation to 325 A.D. The second, called the Chronological Canon, consisted of parallel chronological tables of the names of rulers and the most important events since 2017 B.C. Only fragments of the original work remain; but we have both books in an Armenian translation, and the second in the Latin version of Hieronymus. Among the other works of Eusebius we may mention: (1) A sketch of the topography of Palestine, in two books. The second alone survives, both in the original and in the translation of Hieronymus. (2) A biography, in four books, of the emperor Constantine, who had shown favour to Eusebius and had been baptized by him. This work is strongly coloured by personal feeling. (3) A panegyric on Constantine.