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

II. LIFE OF SOCRATES.

[...regarding] Troilus, the famous rhetorician,⁸ that Socrates must have received instruction from this teacher as well, though there is no sufficient foundation for this claim.⁹

Socrates always remained a resident of Constantinople, and he was evidently proud of his native city, frequently alluding to both its history and its contemporary state. He relates how the Emperor Constantine enlarged the city and gave it its present name, replacing the earlier pagan name (Byzantium).¹⁰ He writes of its large population and its ability to sustain its many inhabitants through its abundant resources.¹¹ He views its public structures much as the ancient Israelite viewed the "towers and battlements" of Jerusalem. He makes specific mention of the walls built by Theodosius the Younger; the Forums of Constantine and Theodosius; the Amphitheatre; the Hippodrome, with its Delphic tripods; and the baths—especially that called Zeuxippus.¹² He names as many as five churches at various times: the church of the Apostles, erected by Constantine specifically for the burial of emperors and priests;¹³ the church of St. Sophia, which he calls “the great church”; the church of St. Irene,¹⁴ located in the same enclosure as St. Sophia; the church of St. Acacius, along with its dependencies;¹⁵ and the chapel of St. John, built seven miles outside the city.¹⁶ Additionally, he provides circumstantial details regarding the porch, the shambles (meat market), and the porphyry column near which Arius was struck by his sudden and fatal illness;¹⁷ the region called Sycæ; and the tomb of Alexander the Paphlagonian, who was tortured and died in prison during the temporary dominance of the Arians.¹⁸

Although there is no explicit mention of him ever leaving the great city,¹⁹ it is unlikely that he was averse to traveling, unlike his famous Athenian namesake. In fact, his frequent, detailed mentions of the customs of the Paphlagonians, Thessalians, Cyprians, and others give the impression that he may have visited these places.

According to the preponderance of evidence, Socrates was trained as a pleader or advocate and practiced this profession for a time. This explains his surname, Scholasticus.²⁰ At the request of a certain Theodorus, he undertook to write a continuation of the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius, bringing the account down to the seventeenth consulate of the Emperor Theodosius the Younger (439 A.D.).²¹

This year is the last date definitely mentioned in his work. He must have lived, however, until some time after that, as he speaks of revising the first two books of his history.²² How much later is impossible to determine; it was certainly not until after the end of Theodosius’ reign, for he would have brought his history down to that event, thus completing his seventh book according to the plan—evident throughout his work—of assigning one complete book to each emperor covered in his period.

Regarding the character of Socrates as a man, we know as little as we do of the events of his life. Evidently, he was a lover of peace, as he constantly speaks with abhorrence of the atrocities of war and condemns even differences in theological viewpoints because of the strife and ill-will they engender.