Philostorgios

Philostorgios (Greek: Φιλοστόργιος; * around 368 in Borissos, Cappadocia ; † after 433) was a late antique church historian .

life and work

Philostorgios was born as the son of Karterios and Eulampia around 368 in Cappadocia and probably came from a wealthy background. His parents were religiously inclined towards the Homousian direction (see Arianism ). Philostorgios himself later confessed to the "radicalarian" (Eunomian) direction, which was outlawed under Emperor Theodosius I. The apparently educated Philostorgios went to Constantinople at a young age (probably around 388) , where, after 425, he wrote his church history in Greek and a learned style.

Philostorgios is a peculiarity among the late antique church historians in that he did not write from the (ultimately victorious) "orthodox point of view", but on the contrary, as a Eunomian church historian, set completely different accents. The church history of Philostorgios dealt with the period from the beginning of the Arian dispute to at least 425 in 12 books . The work was soon banned due to the tendency in terms of content and has therefore not survived, but some summaries allow, especially those of Photius , but also in one anonymous Vita of Constantine the Great ( Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca 365), in the Suda and in the Artemii Passio , at least an approximate idea of ​​the structure and content. However, recent research has shown that Photios does not always accurately reproduce the original text.

Philostorgios was primarily concerned with justifying his Eunomian standpoint, which he promoted in a learned, argumentative style. His descriptions differ repeatedly from the surviving Christian “orthodox” sources: He attributes the cause of the Arian dispute more to personal differences than to differing doctrinal opinions. His assessment of Emperor Constantine , whom he dealt with in the first two books of church history, is also different. Philostorgios used material from Pagan (pagan) authors and stylized Constantine anachronistically as the champion of his own radicalarian cause. Philostorgios also gave a lot of space here to episodes relating to escapades at the imperial court. Philostorgios also praised the church history of Eusebius of Kaisareia , whose dogmatic standpoint in the Arian dispute he did not share.

Although Philostorgios detested the pagan cults, he still professed the classical cultural heritage. In keeping with the tradition of Herodotus and the following classicist historians, his work is enriched with learned excursions on geography and natural history. His work also seems to have been stylistically designed. On the other hand, however, he attributed natural events to divine influence or referred to the illness of persons to whom he was hostile as divine work. Philostorgios took the profane history into account relatively strongly. His work contains a lot of important and reliable information; so for example with Julian , where he can sometimes serve as a corrective to the tendentious-positive portrayal of Ammianus Marcellinus . Philostorgios, like Sozomenos , did not reproduce official documents in full, but instead reported the content.

He used several, partly not preserved representations as sources (such as a lost church history, referred to in research as an “anonymous homoic historian”) and probably also pagan works. Some similarities, but also differences to the description in Ammianus Marcellinus can be identified; Overall, several strands of sources that Philostorgios used can be expected. Furthermore, he seems to have resorted to acts of the council, letters from religious dignitaries and emperors, as well as apparently his own experiences.

For some time now, the work has re-awakened research interest, as demonstrated by a conference held in Strasbourg in June 2006 , the results of which are now also available in printed form. In the new edition by Bruno Bleckmann and Markus Stein , the introduction and comprehensive commentary reflect the current state of research.

Editions and translations

• Joseph Bidez : Philostorgius. Church history. With the life of Lucian of Antioch and the fragments of an Arian historiographer . 3rd edition, edit. by F. Winkelmann. Berlin 1981 (basic text edition with detailed introduction).
• Bruno Bleckmann , Markus Stein (Ed.): Philostorgios Church History. 2 volumes. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2015 ( Small and fragmentary historians of late antiquity E 7), ISBN 978-3-506-78199-4 . (critical edition with translation and extensive commentary)
• Philip R. Amidon (Ed.): Philostorgius. Church History . Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta 2007. (English translation with introduction and commentary)

literature

• Bruno Bleckmann : Constantine in the church history of Philostorg . In: Millennium . Yearbook on Culture and History of the First Millennium AD 1 (2004), pp. 185–231.
• Bruno Bleckmann: The Vita BHG 365 and the reconstruction of the lost church history of Philostorg. The fight between Constantine and Licinius . In: Jahrbuch für Antike und Christianentum 46 (2003), pp. 7-16.
• Bruno Bleckmann: Apocalypse and cosmic catastrophes: The image of the Theodosian dynasty in the church historian Philostorg. In: Wolfram Brandes and Felicitas Schmieder (eds.): Endzeit. Eschatology in the monotheistic world religions (= Millennium Studies. Yearbook on Culture and History of the First Millennium AD 16). Berlin-New York 2008, pp. 13–40.
• Hartmut Leppin : Heretical Historiography: Philostorgius . In: Studia Patristica 34 (2001), pp. 111-124.
• Gabriele Marasco: The Church Historians (II): Philostorgius and Gelasius of Cyzicus . In: Greek and Roman Historiography in Late Antiquity. Fourth to Sixth Century AD Ed. By Gabriele Marasco, Leiden and Boston 2003, pp. 257–288.
• Gabriele Marasco: Filostorgio: Cultura, fede e politica in uno storico ecclesiastico del V secolo . Rome 2005.
• Doris Mayer (Ed.): Philostorge et l'historiographie de l'Antiquité tardive / Philostorg in the context of late antique historiography . Steiner, Stuttgart 2011 ( discussion at H-Soz-u-Kult ).

Web links

Wikisource: Philostorgios  - Sources and full texts

• Literature by and about Philostorgios in the catalog of the German National Library
• Summary at Photios (English)

Remarks

1. ↑ For the vita see the introduction in Bruno Bleckmann, Markus Stein (ed.): Philostorgios Kirchengeschichte. Volume 1. Paderborn 2015, p. 37ff.
2. ↑ Cf. to the work itself the introduction in Bruno Bleckmann, Markus Stein (ed.): Philostorgios Kirchengeschichte. Volume 1. Paderborn 2015, pp. 45ff.
3. ^ First printed in 1643 in Geneva by J. Gothofredus.
4. ↑ Cf. Bleckmann, Konstantin in der Kirchengeschichte Philostorgs , summarized on p. 231.
5. ↑ Cf. Bruno Bleckmann, Markus Stein (Ed.): Philostorgios Kirchengeschichte. Volume 1. Paderborn 2015, p. 47f.
6. ↑ Cf. Bruno Bleckmann, Markus Stein (Ed.): Philostorgios Kirchengeschichte. Volume 1. Paderborn 2015, pp. 55ff.
7. ↑ See summary at H-Soz-u-Kult .
8. ↑ Doris Mayer (ed.): Philostorge et l'historiographie de l'Antiquité tardive / Philostorg in the context of late antique historiography . Stuttgart 2011.