Eusebius: Difference between revisions

* When his own honesty was challenged by his contemporaries,<ref>See Gibbon's ''Vindication'' for examples of the accusations that he faced.</ref> Gibbon appealed to a chapter heading in Eusebius' ''[[Preparation for the Gospel|Praeparatio evangelica]]'' (Book XII, Chapter 31)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/eusebius_pe_12_book12.htm|title=Eusebius of Caesarea: Praeparatio Evangelica (translated by E.H. Gifford)|publisher=tertullian.org|access-date=2013-03-04}}</ref> in which Eusebius discussed "that it will be necessary sometimes to use falsehood as a remedy for the benefit of those who require such a mode of treatment."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/eusebius/pe_data.htm|title=Data for discussing the meaning of pseudos and Eusebius in PE XII, 31|publisher=tertullian.org|access-date=2008-02-01}}</ref>

* Although Gibbon refers to Eusebius as the "gravest" of the ecclesiastical historians,<ref>"The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius himself, indirectly confesses, that he has related whatever might redound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could tend to the disgrace, of religion." (History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol II, Chapter XVI)</ref> he also suggests that Eusebius was more concerned with the passing political concerns of his time than with his duty as a reliable historian.<ref>"Such an acknowledgment will naturally excite a suspicion that a writer who has so openly violated one of the fundamental laws of history has not paid a very strict regard to the observance of the other; and the suspicion will derive additional credit from the character of Eusebius, which was less tinctured with credulity, and more practised in the arts of courts, than that of almost any of his contemporaries." (History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol II, Chapter XVI)</ref>

* Other critics of Eusebius' work cite the panegyrical tone of the ''Vita'', plus the omission of internal Christian conflicts in the ''Canones'', as reasons to interpret his writing with caution.<ref>Burgess, R. W., and Witold Witakowski. 1999. Studies in Eusebian and Post-Eusebian chronography 1.'' The "Chronici canones" of Eusebius of Caesarea: structure, content and chronology, AD 282–325&nbsp;– 2. The "Continuatio Antiochiensis Eusebii": a chronicle of Antioch and the Roman Near East during the Reigns of Constantine and Constantius II, AD 325–350.'' Historia (Wiesbaden, Germany), Heft 135. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner. Page 69.</ref>