De viris illustribus
Of considerable importance as well is the "De viris illustribus", which was written at Bethlehem in 392, the title and arrangement of which are borrowed from Suetonius. It contains short biographical and literary notes on 135 Christian authors, from Saint Peter down to Jerome himself. For the first seventy-eight authors Eusebius ("Historia ecclesiastica") is the main source; in the second section, beginning with Arnobius and Lactantius, he includes a good deal of independent information, especially as to Western writers.