Cover; Half Title; Title; Copyright; Contents; Preface; Abbreviations; Dedication; Part 1 Bases and beginnings; 1 Backdrop: retributive principles in traditional societies and ancient historiography; 2 The first Christian historian: Luke and his two books; Part 2 Centrepiece: the Eusebian achievement; 3 Towards historical triumphalism: Eusebius, Lactantius and their predecessors; 4 The man in the middle: Rufinus of Aquileia between East and West; Part 3 The Byzantine East; 5 Church history as nonconformism: retributive and eschatological elements in Athanasius and Philostorgius
6 The golden chain of Byzantinism: the Tripartite ecclesiastical histories of Socrates, Sozomen and TheodoretPart 4 The Latin West; 7 History as theodicy: Augustine's De civitate Dei; 8 Consolations of history under the declining Western empire: Sulpicius and Orosius; Aftermath; Select bibliography; Index
