FOOTNOTES:
[27] For the Miracles of St. Hilarion see Neale's Patriarchate of Antioch, pp. 111-13.
[28] For the chariot race during the life of Hilarion see Appendix I, on the Circus of Gaza.
CHAPTER X
SOZOMEN, CHURCH HISTORIAN (a.d. 400—c. 450)
Salamanes Hermias Sozomenus, called Scholasticus, came of a wealthy family, and was born at Bethelia, a small town close to Gaza, c. a.d. 400, where his grandfather had been one of the first to embrace Christianity, probably under Constantius, through the influence of St. Hilarion. This hermit, among his other miracles, had miraculously healed an acquaintance of Sozomen's grandfather, one Alaphion. Both men, with their families, became zealous Christians, and were conspicuous for their virtues. Having been endowed with great natural ability, this ancestor of Sozomen was distinguished as an interpreter of Holy Scripture, and held fast his Christian profession, even in the time of Julian. Sozomen was educated at first in Bethelia, among the monks, for some memories of his youth are connected with the neighbourhood of Gaza. In early manhood he went to Berytus (Beirût)[29] to be trained in civil law at its famous school. As a man he retained the impressions of his youth. When he became an Advocate of Constantinople, he wrote his chief work, Ἐκκλησιαστικὴ Ἱστορία. c. a.d. 440.—It consisted of nine books, from a.d. 323-423, a continuation of Eusebius. It is a monument of his reverence for the monks in general, and also for the disciples of St. Hilarion in particular. He dedicated it to the Emperor Theodosius II. What Sozomen has to tell of the history of Southern Palestine was derived from oral tradition. Sozomen died c. a.d. 450.
Bethelia was formerly a town with a famous heathen temple, renowned for its beauty and age, which Sozomen calls "the village of the Gazæans." It is now the Arabic Beit Lehia, which lies among the olive groves north of the city, and retains its religious character by the mosque and minaret which, no doubt, replaced the ancient temple.