Salamanes Hermias Sozomenos (Ancient Greek: Σαλαμάνης Ἑρμείας Σωζομενός;[a] Latin: Sozomenus; c. 400 – c. 450 AD), also known as Sozomen, was a Roman lawyer and historian of the Christian Church.
[citation needed] Sozomen wrote that his grandfather lived at Bethelia,[5] near Gaza, and became a Christian together with his household, probably under Constantius II.
The grandfather became within his own circle a highly esteemed interpreter of Scripture and according to Sozomen "much beloved by the Christians of Ascalon, Gaza and of the surrounding country".
The descendants of the wealthy Alaphrion founded churches and convents in the district, and were particularly active in promoting monasticism and were also esteemed by Sozomen.
It is impossible to ascertain what curriculum he followed in these monastic schools, but his writings give clear evidence of the thoroughness with which he was grounded in Greek studies.
[7] As a man he retained the impressions of his youth, and his great work later was to be also a monument of his reverence for the monks in general and for the disciples of Hilarion in particular.
His first work covered the history of the Church, from the Ascension of Jesus to the defeat of Licinius in 323, in twelve books.
His sources for it included Eusebius of Caesarea, the Clementine homilies, Hegesippus, and Sextus Julius Africanus.
Sozomen appears also to have consulted the Historia Athanasii and also the works of Athanasius including the Vita Antonii.
He completes the statements of Socrates from the Apologia contra Arianos, lix, sqq., and copies Athanasius' Adv.
These include sources relating to Christianity in Persia, monkish histories, the Vita Martini of Sulpicius Severus, the works of Hilarius, logoi of Eustathius of Antioch, the letter of Cyril of Jerusalem to Constantius concerning the miraculous vision of the cross, and Palladius.
The first printed (though untranslated) version of Sozomen, which was based on the Codex Regius of 1444, was that of Robert Estienne at Paris in 1544.
[13] A noteworthy edition was done by Valesius (Cambridge, 1720), who used, besides the text of Stephens, a Codex Fucetianus (now at Paris, 1445), "Readings" of Savilius, and the indirect traditions of Theodorus Lector and of Cassiodorus-Epiphanius.