Early Christian historiography : narratives of retributive justice Machine generated contents note: Part 1 Bases and beginnings 1 1 Backdrop: retributive principles in traditional societies and ancient historiography 3 2 The first Christian historian: Luke and his two books 47 Part 2 Centrepiece: the Eusebian achievement 107 3 Towards historical triumphalism: Eusebius Lactantius and their predecessors 109 4 The man in the middle: Rufinus of Aquileia between East and West 158 Part 3 The Byzantine East 185 5 Church history as nonconformism: retributive and eschatological elements in Athanasius and Philostorgius 187 6 The golden chain of Byzantinism: the Tripartite ecclesiastical histories of Socrates Sozomen and Theodoret 213 Part 4 The Latin West 253 7 History as theodicy: Augustines De civitate Dei 255 8 Consolations of history under the declining Western empire: Sulpicius and Orosius 283