456 CHRONICLES, HISTORIES, MEMOIRS. 



city lie was prefect, a History of the Emperors, beginning from Augustus, 

 and a summary treatise of the illustrious men of Rome (" De Viris Illustribus 

 Urbis Romae"), which has often been attributed to Pliny the younger and 

 Cornelius Nepos. Flavius Eutropius, who was a soldier and a statesman, com- 

 piled an Abridgment of Roman History ("Breviarium Rerum Romanarum") 

 in ten books, from the foundation of Rome to the reign of the Emperor Valens ; 

 and Ammianus Marcellinus, a native of Antioch, who took part in the wars 

 waged by the Emperor Julian in Gaul and Germany, completed in after life 

 an immense History of the Roman Emperors, from the reign of Nerva to that 

 of Valentinianus, but the first thirteen books of which are lost. This History, 

 though its style is uncouth, forms a brilliant termination to the series of Latin 

 histories of the empire. 



But in the fifth century, while the barbarian hordes were pouring in upon 

 the Old World by way of Spain, Gaul, and Italy, where they founded fresh 

 states, the empire of the East became the asylum for a new historic school, 

 which grew remarkable for a number of great works emanating from 

 Christian thought, and intended to celebrate the triumph of the Christian 

 religion. Philostorgius wrote in Greek a general History of the Church, 

 which is only known to us by the abridgment of it made by Photius ; Socrates 

 continued the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius from the year 306 to^439 ; 

 Sozomen, born in Palestine, compiled an excellent History of the Church, 

 in nine books, from the year 324 to 439 ; and Theodoret, Bishop of Syria, 

 also edited an Ecclesiastical History, in five books, of the same period. It 

 would appear as if the genius of history was concentrated upon the annals of 

 the Church, when arose quarrels and disputes as keen as those which were 

 formerly provoked by politics alone. This new kind of history seems better 

 adapted to Greek literature, though three or four of the Latiu writers appear 

 to have preserved the best traditions of their language. The priest Rufinus, 

 who had been intimate with St. Jerome, and who had lived in retirement in 

 Sicily, where he died (410), translated the History of Eusebius into passable 

 Latin ; Sulpicius Severus, his contemporary, a more elegant and correct 

 writer, although born in Aquitaine, and who never left Gaul, where he had 

 followed the apostleship of St. Martin, composed an Abridgment of Sacred 

 History from the creation of the world to the year 410 A.D., and this excellent 

 book earned the surname of the Christian Sallust. 



The Greek language, the existence of which was henceforward inseparable 



