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Eusebius of Caesarea in Palestine
(the Roman empire offered many cities with the name), sometimes known
as 'Pamphilus' or the 'son of Pamphilus,' was born a little after
A.D. 260, became bishop of Caesarea about 313 and lived there until
his death in 339. Perhaps because of his Panegyric of
Constantine (elsewhere on this
site) as well as his long Life of
Constantine, Eusebius is always
linked with the Christian emperor; in fact, he encountered
Constantine but rarely, and his information about his emperor is
mostly secondhand. Eusebius also wrote quite a number of other works,
ranging from the theological treatises and works on Christian
Scripture to the Ecclesiastical
History (of which significant
portions are available from the links below). He seems to have taken
quite an interest in martyrs; his history offers many examples
treated at length, and his Martyrs of
Palestine was written in several
editions over a period of years. Indeed, one of the problems with any
study of Eusebius is the number and the dating of the editions of his
works. I shall not attempt any further remarks here, but refer
readers to T.D. Barnes, Constantine
and Eusebius (Cambridge, Mass.,
1981), who treats the problems thoroughly and refers to detailed
discussions of his own and those of others.
The translation is that in the Library of Nicene and Post
Nicene Fathers and available in its entirety on the World Wide Web,
together with the other volumes in the series. I have replaced the
introduction with a brief one of my own, removed the page numbers to
that edition (since they seemed more confusing than helpful), and
deleted the references to footnotes (since only the references and
not the notes were present in the scanned version). I have added a
few notes; these, employing the capabilities of Internet browsers, I
have placed in a second frame to facilitate consultation of text and
notes at the same time. Occasionally, I have made a few corrections
to the scanned text and made minor changes to layout to facilitate
ease of use.
Eusebius devotes a considerable
portion of his ecclesiastical history, particularly the first seven
books (which he finished before the Great Persecution of Diocletianic
times), to doctrinal matters and heresy, the successions of bishops,
etc. For the student of history, these may be of somewhat less
interest. I have therefore abstracted from Books VI and VII those
portions which refer to emperors from Septimius Severus onwards, as
well as the persecutions of the third century and the experiences of
the persecuted, though complete versions of these books are available
through the links below. When he wrote ecclesiastical history again,
his perspective seems to have changed somewhat. Consequently, Books
VIII, IX and X address, with little exception, emperors, persecutions
and martyrdom. I have therefore included complete versions only;
these books are in any case considerably shorter than Books VI and
VII. Throughout his historical work, especially, Eusebius is fond of
quoting documents, whether these be imperial decrees which he has
translated from the Latin into Greek or letters written by bishops
and others. The historicity of some documents has occasionally been
impugned. Of this the reader should be aware, but my brief notes can
hardly do justice to the topic, and the absence of a note ought not
to be regarded as indicative of veracity. In general, the notes are
designed to aid in understanding of the text, to alert readers to
problems and to refer readers to other material, whether this be
other ancient sources or modern treatments. Students in my courses
rather than students elsewhere or scholars are the target audience.
The notes may seem, at first glance, to be presented oddly; in fact, they are. Because hyperlinks offer possibilities not available in other forms of publishing, all the notes to the entire selection of material from Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History have been placed in a single file; this should appear in the bottom window. To spare myself the necessity of writing all the notes immediately or manually rearranging numbers and hyperlinks later, notes are numbered in order of preparation, not in order of their appearance in the files. Readers need merely to click on a note number to have the correct note appear at the top of the bottom window. This will permit me to add notes easily in the future; it also means that the repetition of a note in another section need only offer a link to the previous note. [I do not recall seeing frames employed for notes in this way. Have I invented this and the apparently erratic numeration?]
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Book VI, selections
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Book VII, selections
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Book VI
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Book VII
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Book VIII
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Book IX
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Book X
Eusebius, Martyrs of Palestine
Eusebius, In Praise of Constantine
List of Texts available on this site
Last modified 17 February 1998