Introduction

Joseph Bidez’s claim that various Late Antique and medieval sources contained traces of a lost “Arian” history from the fourth century built upon a theory that had been proposed by several scholars before him. Both H. M. Gwatkin and Pierre Batiffol had already drawn attention to certain unorthodox traits found in the seventh-century account known as the Paschal Chronicle. Bidez expanded their initial observations in his critical edition of Philostorgius’ Ecclesiastical History. In Appendix VII to this edition, Bidez argued that not only were his predecessors correct about their initial hypothesis of a lost “Arian” history but also that it was possible to reconstruct this account through fragments that he had painstakingly identified.