Note 274.2 — Chapter III · NOTES

See Frazer, op. cit., p. 33, n. 1, quoting Sozomen. Hist. Eccles., 5, 10, 7; Sokrates, Hist. Eccles., 1, 18, 7-9; Euseb. Vita Constantin., 3, 58. Eusebius only vaguely alludes to it. Sokrates merely says that the wives were in common, and that the people had the habit of giving over the virgins to strangers to violate. Sozomenos is the only voucher for the religious aspect of the practice; from Sokrates we gather that the rule about strangers was observed in the rite.