Philostorgius
c.368-430. Native of Borissus in Cappadocia, he wrote an ecclesiastical history from the Arian heresy (300) to Valentinian II's rise to the Western throne in 425. Like most histories emanating from the late empire, that of the Eunomian Philostorgius was inaccurate and patently biased. According to Photius (Bibliotheca, Cod. XI), whose ninth- century epitome is our chief source, Philostorgius's lost work was “less a history than an eulogy of the [Arian and Eunomian] heretics and a defamation against the orthodox.” By the early fourteenth century only this epitome reached Nicephorus Callistus. Other fragments survive in the Passion of Artemius, an Arian martyr (c.362). Philostorgius's twelve books began respectively with the letters of his name, forming an acrostic. His work has value for its accounts of several important Arians and as a corrective to the partisan views of orthodox church historians. He knew considerable geography and astronomy and had an elegant style.