PREFATORY NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR

The basis of this edition of Socrates' Ecclesiastical History is the translation found in the Bagster series, as mentioned in Part IV of the Introduction. However, numerous changes have been made. The original translation was unnecessarily free; while some freedom is acceptable to accommodate English idioms, many departures from the original text were not justified by such a need. They were likely influenced by the rhetorical style prevalent when that translation was first made. The shift in literary taste since then necessitated modifications for this edition. Many more changes could have been made without harming the work, but it was decided that the scope and purpose of this edition required only the most essential ones.

In preparing the notes, I freely used the editions of Hussey and Reading, which contain the annotations of Valesius and Reading. Whenever a note was taken directly from these, it has been quoted and credited. Generally, however, I found it best to condense and reduce the number and bulk of these notes, and to sparingly introduce new notes suggested by more recent studies in ecclesiastical history.

The Introduction is almost entirely dependent on the literature cited in Part I. The author makes no claim to original discoveries regarding Socrates or his work. The facts were diligently gathered by my predecessors; I have simply rearranged them and expressed them in a way that suits the plan of this series.

A. C. Zenos.

New York, March 1890.

Broad-street, Oxford,
Dec. 1890.