The notion of fact, as a metaphysical category, is of fairly recent vintage. As a result, perhaps, it has not received the attention that has been accorded more traditional concepts. The present study, which integrates historical exposition with philosophical analysis, aims to help rectify this situation. The first chapter delimits the subject matter by distinguishing the metaphysical sense of the word "fact" from various epistemic and semantic ones, in the process distinguishing facts from propositions. Chapter Two is chiefly historical. The pressures that led to the positing of facts in the latter half of the nineteenth century are discussed in the context of the history of the the doctrine of relations, beginning with Aristotle and the Scholastics. Chapter Three takes up what the author considers the main argument in favor of admitting facts, which is due to F. H. Bradley. The fourth and final chapter considers several versions of a well-known argument against facts due originally to Frege and Church and examines the pros and cons of various ways of getting around it.

Eusebius of Caesarea was one of the most significant and voluminous contributors to the development of late antique literary culture. Despite his significance, Eusebius has tended to receive attention more as a source for histories of early Christianity and the Constantinian empire than as a writer and thinker in his own right. He was a compiler and copyist of pagan and Christian texts, collator of a massive chronographical work, commentator on scriptural texts, author of apologetic, historical, educational, and biographical works, and custodian of one of the greatest libraries in the ancient world. As such, Eusebius merits a primary place in our appreciation of the literary culture of late antiquity for both his self-conscious conveyance of multiple traditions and his fostering of innovative literary and intellectual trajectories. By focusing on the full range of Eusebius’s literary corpus, the collection of essays in Eusebius of Caesarea offers new and innovative studies that will change the ways classicists, theologians, and ancient historians think about this major figure.