Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 2 (Augustine: City of God, Christian Doctrine)

II. LIFE OF SOCRATES.

We must regret that the age in which Socrates lived cared little, if at all, about recording the lives of its literary men. The only information available comes from their own writings and public records, provided they held roles as literary men and political or ecclesiastical officials. Since Socrates did not participate in the public affairs of his day, our information about him is limited to the brief, incidental items we can gather from his history. Because he was not fond of speaking about himself, these data are few and often of doubtful significance. In fact, reconstructing his biography from these scattered fragments is a difficult critical investigation.

All that these inadequate materials yield can be summarized as follows:
He was born in Constantinople.¹ He never mentions his parents or ancestry, and no information has reached us from any other source. The year of his birth* is inferred from his comments on his education under the grammarians Helladius and Ammonius.² These grammarians were originally Egyptian priests living in Alexandria—the former of Jupiter, and the latter of Pithecus (the monkey)—who fled their native city due to the disturbances that followed the cleansing of the Mithreum and the destruction of the Serapeum by Bishop Theophilus. An open conflict broke out between pagans and Christians at that time; many pagans, having participated in the riots, faced prosecution and fled to other cities—many of them naturally to Constantinople. The Chronicon of Marcellinus dates this event to the consulship of Timasius and Promotus, i.e., 389 A.D. Since Socrates was very young³ when he studied under them, and it was the custom to send children to school at age ten, Valesius has reasoned that Socrates must have been born in 379; others have proposed 380⁴ as a more probable date. Other data for determining his exact birth date are of very doubtful significance. For instance, he speaks of Auxanon,⁵ a Novatian presbyter, from whom he received certain information; but as Auxanon lived until after the accession of Theodosius the Younger in 408 A.D., it is impossible to draw a firm conclusion. Similarly, Socrates mentions the patriarchate of Chrysostom in Constantinople (398–403) as if he had received his information at second hand,⁶ implying he was perhaps too young to be an interested eye-witness of those events. But we cannot infer his exact age from this, and thus cannot use Chrysostom's patriarchate as a chronological anchor. Another item that might have served as data—had it been definitively linked to his career—is his mention of a dispute between the Eunomians and Macedonians in Constantinople in 394.⁷ If he were an eye-witness, he would have been old enough to take an interest in it (around fourteen or fifteen). But this conclusion is not certain, as he does not explicitly state he was an eye-witness. Thus, while it is highly probable that Valesius is correct in dating Socrates' birth to 379, it may have occurred several years later.

Nothing further is known of Socrates' early life and education except his studies under Ammonius and Helladius.

¹ As he states in V. 24.
² V. 16. On the destruction of the Serapeum, see Sozomen, VII. 15; Theodoret, H. E. V. 22; Nicephorus, XII. 25; Eunapius, Ædes. par. 77; Suidas, "Serapis." Helladius, according to Suidas, wrote a Dictionary, among other works. Cf. s.v. "Helladius."
³ Meaning "while still very young."
⁴ Valesius' reasoning assumes Socrates was sent to the grammarians as soon as they arrived in Constantinople. If an interval of several years elapsed, his birth date must be shifted later. The only certainty is that he was born no earlier than 379.
⁵ I. 13 and II. 38.
⁶ VI. 3, and "as they say."
⁷ V. 24.