x II. Life of Socrates. We cannot but regret the fact that the age in which Socrates lived cared little, if at all, about recording the lives of its literary men. The only sources of information in this respect are the writings themselves of these literary men and the public records, in case they held the double character of literary men and political or ecclesiastical officials. As Socrates did not participate in the public affairs of his day, our information respecting him is confined to the scanty and incidental items we may gather from his history. As he was not very fond of speaking of himself, these data are few and often of doubtful significance. In fact, the re- construction of his biography from these scattered items is a matter of difficult critical in- vestigation. All that these inadequate materials yield of his biography may be summed up as follows: He was born in Constantinople.5 He nowhere mentions his parents or ancestry, and no information has reached us on this point from any other source. The year of his birth is in- ferred from what he says of his education at the hands of the grammarians Helladius and Ammonias.6 These grammarians were originally Egyptian priests living in Alexandria—the former of Jupiter, and the latter of Pithecus (Simius); they fled from their native city in consequence of the disturbances which followed the cleansing of the Mithreum and destruc- tion of the Serapeum by the bishop Theophilus. It appears that at that time an open conflict took place between the pagans and Christians, and many of the pagans having taken part in the tumult, laid themselves open to criminal prosecution, and to avoid this, took refuge in other cities,—a large number of them naturally in Constantinople. TheChronicon of Marcellinus puts this event in the consulship of Timasius and Promotus, i.e. 389 a.d. Now, as Socrates was very young7 when he came to these grammarians, and it was the custom to send children to the schools at the age of ten, Valesius has reasoned that Socrates must have been born in 379; others have named 3808 as a more probable date for this event. Other data for ascertaining the exact date of Socrates’ birth are of very doubtful significance. He speaks, for instance, of Auxanon,9 a Novatian presbyter, from whom he had received certain 5 So he says in V. 24. 6 V. 16. On the destruction of the Serapeum, see Sozom. VII. 15; Theodeoret, H. E. V. 22; Nicephor. XII. 25; Eunap. Ædes. par. 77; Suidas, Σάραπις. Helladius, according to Suidas, wrote a Dictionary, besides other works. Cf. s. v. ᾽Ελλάδιος. 7 κομιδῆ νέος ὤν. 8 Valesius’ reasoning is based on the assumption that Socrates was sent to the grammarians as soon as they arrived at Constantinople. If, however, an interval of several years elapsed before his going to them, the date of his birth must be put correspondingly later. The only certainty reached through this datum is that he was born nor earlier than 379. 9 I. 13 and II. 38. Life of Socrates. 6 Life of Socrates.