Book of synods

That Nestorius wrote a historical account of the events concerning and following the Council of Ephesus is attested by Evagrius Scholasticus (Ecclesiastical history 1.7). This historical work was apparently used by Nestorius' supporter, Irenaeus of Tyre, in the composition of his (now lost) Ecclesiastical history, also known as Tragedy. The reworked Latin translation of Irenaeus' Tragedy, commonly referred to as Synodikon adversus Tragoediam Irenaei - a misleading title invented by the first editor Baluze (1683: 665) - reports a passage that Irenaeus drew 'ex Nestorii dictis in libro de historia'. An excerpt from the same piece of writing by Nestorius is also preserved in the Syriac manuscript London, British Library, Additional 12156, where we read that the text was referred to as Synodikon by Nestorius' followers. A work entitled Tragedy is ascribed to Nestorius by Abdisho bar Brika and by the Syriac translator of Nestorius' Book of Heraclides, which led Assemani (1725: 35) to state that Irenaeus' and Nestorius' historical works were one and the same book, entitled Tragedy, to be ascribed to the latter instead of to the former. Loofs (1905: 87-88) re-examines the whole question, proposing different possible reconstructions.

Nau (1913: 500) lists Nestorius' historical work among the sources of Barhadbeshabba Arbaya's Ecclesiastical history.