Ecclesiastical history

The number of eight books is a hypothetical reconstruction, based on a parallelism between the first four books, a compilation on the basis of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret, and the second half of the work, an independent work of history. Hansen (1995: x-xi) suggests that both parts of the work were separately published, but the evidence suggests that both parts usually circulated together and were continously numbered. The history is lost except for books 1 and 2 (which Hansen failed to edit in his edition). It can be reconstructed from the Epitome of ecclesiastical histories. On the problems with Hansen's edition, see Kosinski 2017a and 2017b. A new edition is being prepared by him and other scholars: cf. the theme issue of the journal Res gestae 5 (2017).