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Enron

Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional companies. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 20,600 staff and was a major electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper company, with claimed revenues of nearly $101 billion during 2000. Fortune named Enron "America's Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years.

At the end of 2001, it was revealed that Enron's reported financial condition was sustained by an institutionalized, systematic, and creatively planned accounting fraud, known since as the Enron scandal. Enron has become synonymous with willful corporate fraud and corruption. The scandal also brought into question the accounting practices and activities of many corporations in the United States and was a factor in the enactment of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002. The scandal also affected the greater business world by causing, together with even larger fraudulent bankruptcy WorldCom, the dissolution of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm, which had been Enron and WorldCom's main auditor for years.

Enron filed for bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York in late 2001 and selected Weil, Gotshal & Manges as its bankruptcy counsel. It ended its bankruptcy in November 2004, under a court-approved plan of reorganization. A new board of directors changed the name of Enron to Enron Creditors Recovery Corp., and emphasized reorganizing and liquidating certain operations and assets of the pre-bankruptcy Enron. On September 7, 2006, Enron sold its last remaining subsidiary, Prisma Energy International, to Ashmore Energy International Ltd. (now AEI). It is the largest bankruptcy due specifically to fraud of all time.

InterNorth
One of Enron's primary predecessors was InterNorth, which was formed in 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska, just a few months after Black Tuesday. The low cost of natural gas and the cheap supply of labor during the Great Depression helped to fuel the company's early beginnings, doubling in size by 1932. Over the next 50 years, Northern expanded even more as it acquired many energy companies. It was reorganized in 1979 as the main subsidiary of a holding company, InterNorth, a diversified energy and energy-related products firm. Although most of the acquisitions conducted were successful, some ended poorly. InterNorth competed with Cooper Industries unsuccessfully over a hostile takeover of Crouse-Hinds Company, an electrical products manufacturer. Cooper and InterNorth feuded in numerous suits during the takeover that were eventually settled after the transaction was completed. The subsidiary Northern Natural Gas operated the largest pipeline company in North America. By the 1980s, InterNorth became a major force for natural gas production, transmission, and marketing as well as for natural gas liquids, and was an innovator in the plastics industry. In 1983, InterNorth merged with the Belco Petroleum Company, a Fortune 500 oil exploration and development company founded by Arthur Belfer.

Houston Natural Gas
The Houston Natural Gas (HNG) corporation was initially formed from the Houston Oil Co. in 1925 to provide gas to customers in the Houston market through the building of gas pipelines. Under the leadership of CEO Robert Herring from 1967 to 1981, the company took advantage of the unregulated Texas natural gas market and the commodity surge in the early 1970s to become a dominant force in the energy industry. Toward the end of the 1970s, HNG's luck began to run out with rising gas prices forcing clients to switch to oil. In addition, with the passing of the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978, the Texas market was less profitable and as a result, HNG's profits fell. After Herring died in 1981, M.D. Matthews briefly took over as CEO in a 3-year stint with initial success, but ultimately, a big dip in earnings led to his exit. In 1984, Kenneth Lay succeeded Matthews and inherited the troubled conglomerate.

Merger
With its conservative success, InterNorth became a target of corporate takeovers, the most prominent originating with Irwin Jacobs. InterNorth CEO Sam Segnar sought a friendly merger with HNG. In May 1985, Internorth acquired HNG for $2.3 billion, 40% higher than the current market price, and on July 16, 1985, the two entities voted to merge. The combined assets of the two companies created the second largest gas pipeline system in the US at that time. Internorth's north-south pipelines that served Iowa and Minnesota complemented HNG's Florida and California east-west pipelines well.

Post-merger rise (1985–1991)

The company was initially named HNG/InterNorth Inc., even though InterNorth was technically the parent. At the outset, Segnar was CEO but was soon fired by the board of directors to name Lay to the post. Lay moved its headquarters back to Houston and set out to find a new name, spending more than $100,000 in focus groups and consultants in the process. Lippincott & Margulies, the advertising firm responsible for the InterNorth identity five years prior, suggested "Enteron". During a meeting with employees on February 14, 1986, Lay announced his interest in this name change, which would be held to a stockholder vote on April 10. Less than a month from this meeting, on March 7, 1986, a spokesman for HNG/InterNorth rescinded the planned Enteron proposal, as since its announcement the name had come under scrutiny for being the same as a medical term for the intestines. This same press release saw the introduction of the Enron name, which would be the new name voted on come April.

Enron still had some lingering problems left over from its merger, however, the company had to pay Jacobs, who was still a threat, over $350 million and reorganize the company. Lay sold off any parts of the company that he believed didn't belong in the long-term future of Enron. Lay consolidated all the gas pipeline efforts under the Enron Gas Pipeline Operating Company. In addition, it ramped up its electric power and natural gas efforts. In 1988 and 1989, the company added power plants and cogeneration units to its portfolio. In 1989, Jeffrey Skilling, then a consultant at McKinsey & Company, came up with the idea to link natural gas to consumers in more ways, effectively turning natural gas into a commodity. Enron adopted the idea and called it the "Gas Bank". The division's success prompted Skilling to join Enron as the head of the Gas Bank in 1991. Another major development inside Enron was a pivot to overseas operations with a $56 million loan in 1989 from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) for a power plant in Argentina.

1980s

 * New regulations gradually create a market-pricing system for natural gas. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order 436 (1985) provides blanket approval for pipelines that choose to become common carriers transporting gas intrastate. FERC Order 451 (1986) deregulates the wellhead, and FERC Order 490 (April 1988) authorizes producers, pipelines, and others to terminate gas sales or purchases without seeking prior FERC approval. As a result of these orders, more than 75% of gas sales are conducted through the spot market, and unprecedented market volatility exists.

July 1985

 * Houston Natural Gas, run by Kenneth Lay merges with InterNorth, a natural gas company in Omaha, Nebraska, to form an interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline with approximately 37,000 miles of pipeline.

November 1985

 * Lay is appointed chairman and chief executive of the combined company. The company chooses the name Enron.

1986

 * Company moves headquarters to Houston, where Ken Lay lives. Enron is both a natural gas and oil company.
 * Enron's vision: To become the premier natural gas pipeline in America.

1987

 * Enron Oil, Enron's petroleum marketing operation, reports a loss of $85 million in 8-K filings. True loss of $142–190 million is concealed until 1993. Two top Enron Oil executives in Valhalla, New York, plead guilty to charges of fraud and filing false tax returns. One serves time in prison.

1988

 * The company's major strategy shift – to pursue unregulated markets in addition to its regulated pipeline business – is decided in a gathering that became known as the Come to Jesus meeting.
 * Enron enters the UK energy market following the privatization of the electricity industry there. It becomes the first U.S. company to construct a power plant, Teesside Power Station, in Great Britain.

1989

 * Enron launches Gas Bank, later run by CEO Jeff Skilling in 1990, which allows gas producers and wholesale buyers to purchase gas supplies and hedge the price risk at the same time.
 * Enron begins offering financing to oil and gas producers.
 * Transwestern Pipeline Company, owned by Enron at that time, is the first merchant pipeline in the US to stop selling gas and become a transportation-only pipeline.

1990

 * Enron launches plan to expand US natural gas business abroad.
 * Enron becomes a natural gas market maker. Begins trading futures and options on the New York Mercantile Exchange and over-the-counter market using financial instruments such as swaps and options.
 * Ken Lay and Rich Kinder hire Jeff Skilling from McKinsey & Company to become CEO of Enron Gas Services, Enron's "Gas Bank". Enron Gas Services eventually morphs into Enron Capital and Trade Resources (ECT).
 * Jeff Skilling hires Andrew Fastow from the banking industry; he starts as account director and quickly rises within the ranks of ECT.

1991

 * Enron adopts mark-to-market accounting practices, reporting income and value of assets at their replacement cost.
 * Rebecca Mark becomes chairman and CEO of Enron Development Corp., a unit formed to pursue international markets.
 * Andy Fastow forms the first of many off-balance-sheet partnerships for legitimate purposes. Later, off-balance-sheet partnerships and transactions will become a way for money-losing ventures to be concealed and income reporting to be accelerated.

1992

 * Enron acquires Transportadora de Gas del Sur.

1991–2000
Throughout the 1990s, Enron made a few changes to its business plan that greatly improved the perceived profitability of the company. First, Enron invested heavily in overseas assets, specifically energy. Another major shift was the gradual transition of focus from a producer of energy to a company that acted more like an investment firm and sometimes a hedge fund, making profits off the margins of the products it traded. These products were traded through the Gas Bank concept, now called the Enron Finance Corp. and headed by Skilling.

2002-2006

 * In 2003, Enron moved its subsidiaries of Transwestern Pipeline, Citrus Corporation, and Northern Plains Natural Gas Company into a separate corporation. The plan was to distribute the shares of the new pipeline company to creditors as part of the planned reorganization. Enron later announced the name of the new pipeline corporation as CrossCountry Energy (CCE).
 * As a result of an attempted merger with Dynegy and series of court case between Enron and Dynegy, Northern Plains became a part of Dynegy as a settlement from Enron. MidAmerican Energy Holdings, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathway, later purchased the pipeline company from Dynegy for $928 million.
 * In 2004, CCE was in turn purchased by CCE Holdings Inc. (CCEH), a joint venture between Southern Union Co. and GE Commercial Finance Energy Financial Service. Citrus Corporation, which owns 100% of Florida Gas Transmission Corporation, was 50% owned by CCE and a subsidiary of El Paso Natural Gas Company. CCEH acquired 50% of Citrus Corporation as purchased CCE. CCEH was the successful bidder in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York auction of CCE.
 * In 2006, 50% of CCEH was purchased by Energy Transfer Partners (ETP). CCEH later redeemed ETP's 50% ownership into 100% ownership of Transwestern.

Operations as a trading firm
With the success of the Gas Bank trading natural gas, Skilling looked to expand the horizons of his division, Enron Capital & Trade. Skilling hired Andrew Fastow in 1990 to help.

Entrance into the retail energy market
Starting in 1994 under the Energy Policy Act of 1992, Congress allowed states to deregulate their electricity utilities, allowing them to be opened for competition. California was one such state to do so. Enron, seeing an opportunity with rising prices, was eager to jump into the market. In 1997, Enron acquired Portland General Electric (PGE). Although an Oregon utility, it had the potential to begin serving the massive California market since PGE was a regulated utility. The new Enron division, Enron Energy, ramped up its efforts by offering discounts to potential customers in California starting in 1998. Enron Energy also began to sell natural gas to customers in Ohio and wind power in Iowa. However, the company ended its retail endeavor in 1999 as it was revealed it was costing upwards of $100 million a year.

Data management
As fiber optic technology progressed in the 1990s, multiple companies, including Enron, attempted to make money by "keeping the continuing network costs low", which was done by owning their own network. In 1997, FTV Communications LLC, a limited liability company formed by Enron subsidiary FirstPoint Communications, Inc., constructed a 1,380 mi fiber optic network between Portland and Las Vegas. In 1998, Enron constructed a building in a rundown area of Las Vegas near E Sahara, right over the "backbone" of fiber optic cables providing service to technology companies nationwide. The location had the ability to send "the entire Library of Congress anywhere in the world within minutes" and could stream "video to the whole state of California". The location was also more protected from natural disasters than areas such as Los Angeles or the East Coast. According to Wall Street Daily, "Enron had a secret", it "wanted to trade bandwidth like it traded oil, gas, electricity, etc. It launched a secret plan to build an enormous amount of fiber optic transmission capacity in Las Vegas ... it was all part of Enron's plan to essentially own the internet." Enron sought to have all US internet service providers rely on their Nevada facility to supply bandwidth, which Enron would sell in a fashion similar to other commodities.

In January 2000, Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling announced to analysts that they were going to open trading for their own "high-speed fiber-optic networks that form the backbone for Internet traffic". Investors quickly bought Enron stock following the announcement "as they did with most things Internet-related at the time", with stock prices rising from $40 per share in January 2000 to $70 per share in March, peaking at $90 in the summer of 2000. Enron executives obtained windfall gains from the rising stock prices, with a total of $924 million of stocks sold by high-level Enron employees between 2000 and 2001. The head of Enron Broadband Services, Kenneth Rice, sold 1 million shares himself, earning about $70 million in returns. As prices of existing fiber optic cables plummeted due to the vast oversupply of the system, with only 5% of the 40 million miles being active wires, Enron purchased the inactive "dark fibers", expecting to buy them at low cost and then make a profit as the need for more usage by internet providers increased, with Enron expecting to lease its acquired dark fibers in 20-year contracts to providers. However, Enron's accounting would use estimates to determine how much their dark fiber would be worth when "lit" and apply those estimates to their current income, adding exaggerated revenue to their accounts since transactions were not yet made and it was not known if the cables would ever be active. Enron's trading with other energy companies within the broadband market was its attempt to lure large telecommunications companies, such as Verizon Communications, into its broadband scheme to create its own new market.

By the second quarter of 2001, Enron Broadband Services was reporting losses. On March 12, 2001, a proposed 20-year deal between Enron and Blockbuster Inc. to stream movies on demand over Enron's connections was canceled, with Enron shares dropping from $80 per share in mid-February 2001 to below $60 the week after the deal was killed. The branch of the company that Jeffrey Skilling "said would eventually add $40 billion to Enron's stock value" added only about $408 million in revenue for Enron in 2001, with the company's broadband arm closed shortly after its meager second-quarter earnings report in July 2001.

Following the bankruptcy of Enron, telecommunications holdings were sold for "pennies on the dollar". In 2002, Rob Roy of Switch Communications purchased Enron's Nevada facility in an auction attended only by Roy. Enron's "fiber plans were so secretive that few people even knew about the auction." The facility was sold for only $930,000. Following the sale, Switch expanded to control "the biggest data center in the world".

Overseas expansion
Enron, seeing stability after the merger, began to look overseas for new possible energy opportunities in 1991. Enron's first such opportunity was a natural gas power plant utilizing cogeneration that the company built near Middlesbrough, UK. The power plant was so large it could produce up to 3% of the United Kingdom's electricity demand with a capacity of over 1,875 megawatts. Seeing the success in England, the company developed and diversified its assets worldwide under the name of Enron International (EI), headed by former HNG executive Rebecca Mark. By 1994, EI's portfolio included assets in The Philippines, Australia, Guatemala, Germany, France, India, Argentina, the Caribbean, China, England, Colombia, Turkey, Bolivia, Brazil, Indonesia, Norway, Poland, and Japan. The division was producing a large share of earnings for Enron, contributing 25% of earnings in 1996. Mark and EI believed the water industry was the next market to be deregulated by authorities. Seeing the potential, they searched for ways to enter the market, similar to PGE.

During this period of growth, Enron introduced a new corporate identity on January 14, 1997, and from that point adopted their distinctive tricolor E logo. This logo was one of the final projects of legendary graphic designer Paul Rand before his death in 1996, and debuted almost three months after his departure.

In 1998, Enron International acquired Wessex Water for $2.88 billion. Wessex Water became the core asset of a new company, Azurix, which expanded to other water companies. After Azurix's promising IPO in June 1999, Enron "sucked out over $1 billion in cash while loading it up with debt", according to Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, authors of The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron. Additionally, British water regulators required Wessex to cut its rates by 12% starting in April 2000, and an upgrade was required of the utility's aging infrastructure, estimated at costing over a billion dollars. By the end of 2000 Azurix had an operating profit of less than $100 million and was $2 billion in debt. In August 2000, after Azurix stock took a plunge following its earnings report, Mark resigned from Azurix and Enron. Azurix assets, including Wessex, were eventually sold by Enron.

Misleading financial accounts
In 1990, Enron's chief operating officer Jeffrey Skilling hired Andrew Fastow, who was well acquainted with the burgeoning deregulated energy market that Skilling wanted to exploit. In 1993, Fastow began establishing numerous limited liability special-purpose entities, a common business practice in the energy industry. However, it also allowed Enron to transfer some of its liabilities off its books, allowing it to maintain a robust and generally increasing stock price and thus keep its critical investment-grade credit ratings.

Enron was originally involved in transmitting and distributing electricity and natural gas throughout the US. The company developed, built, and operated power plants and pipelines while dealing with rules of law and other infrastructures worldwide. Enron owned a large network of natural gas pipelines, which stretched coast to coast and border to border including Northern Natural Gas, Florida Gas Transmission, Transwestern Pipeline Company, and a partnership in Northern Border Pipeline from Canada. The states of California, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island had already passed power deregulation laws by July 1996, the time of Enron's proposal to acquire Portland General Electric corporation. During 1998, Enron began operations in the water sector, creating the Azurix Corporation, which it part-floated on the New York Stock Exchange during June 1999. Azurix failed to become successful in the water utility market, and one of its major concessions, in Buenos Aires, was a large-scale money-loser.

Enron grew wealthy due largely to marketing, promoting power, and having a high stock price. Enron was named "America's Most Innovative Company" by Fortune for six consecutive years, from 1996 to 2001. It was on the Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work for in America" list during 2000, and had offices that were stunning in their opulence. Enron was hailed by many, including labor and the workforce, as an overall great company, praised for its large long-term pensions, benefits for its workers, and extremely effective management until the exposure of its corporate fraud. The first analyst to question the company's success story was Daniel Scotto, an energy market expert at BNP Paribas, who issued a note in August 2001 entitled Enron: All stressed up and no place to go which encouraged investors to sell Enron stocks, although he only changed his recommendation on the stock from "buy" to "neutral".

As was later discovered, many of Enron's recorded assets and profits were inflated, wholly fraudulent, or nonexistent. One example was in 1999 when Enron promised to repay Merrill Lynch's investment with interest to show a profit on its books. Debts and losses were put into entities formed offshore that were not included in the company's financial statements; other sophisticated and arcane financial transactions between Enron and related companies were used to eliminate unprofitable entities from the company's books.

The company's most valuable asset and the largest source of honest income, the 1930s-era Northern Natural Gas company, was eventually purchased by a group of Omaha investors who relocated its headquarters to their city; it is now a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Energy. NNG was established as collateral for a $2.5 billion capital infusion by Dynegy Corporation when Dynegy was planning to buy Enron. When Dynegy examined Enron's financial records carefully, they repudiated the deal and dismissed their CEO, Chuck Watson. The new chairman and CEO, the late Daniel Dienstbier, had been president of NNG and an Enron executive at one time and was forced out by Ken Lay. Dienstbier was an acquaintance of Warren Buffett. NNG continues to be profitable now.

2001 accounting scandals
In 2001, after a series of revelations involving irregular accounting procedures perpetrated throughout the 1990s involving Enron and its auditor Arthur Andersen that bordered on fraud, Enron filed for the then largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy in history (since surpassed by those of Worldcom during 2002 and Lehman Brothers during 2008), resulting in $11 billion in shareholder losses.

As the scandal progressed, Enron share prices decreased from US$90 during the summer of 2000, to just pennies. Enron's demise occurred after the revelation that much of its profit and revenue were the result of deals with special-purpose entities (limited partnerships which it controlled). This maneuver allowed many of Enron's debts and losses to disappear from its financial statements.

Enron filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001. In addition, the scandal caused the dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which at the time was one of the Big Five of the world's accounting firms. The company was found guilty of obstruction of justice in 2002 for destroying documents related to the Enron audit. Since the SEC is not allowed to accept audits from convicted felons, Andersen was forced to stop auditing public companies. Although the conviction was dismissed in 2005 by the Supreme Court, the damage to the Andersen name has prevented it from recovering or reviving itself as a viable business even on a limited scale.

Enron also withdrew a naming-rights deal with the Houston Astros Major League Baseball club for its new stadium, which was known formerly as Enron Field (now Minute Maid Park).

Accounting practices
Enron used a variety of deceptive and fraudulent tactics and accounting practices to cover its fraud in reporting Enron's financial information. Special-purpose entities were created to mask significant liabilities from Enron's financial statements. These entities made Enron seem more profitable than it was, and created a dangerous spiral in which, each quarter, corporate officers would have to perform more and more financial deception to create the illusion of billions of dollars in profit while the company was actually losing money. This practice increased their stock price to new levels, at which point the executives began to work on insider information and trade millions of dollars worth of Enron stock. The executives and insiders at Enron knew about the offshore accounts that were hiding losses for the company; the investors, however, did not. Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow directed the team that created the off-books companies and manipulated the deals to provide himself, his family, and his friends with hundreds of millions of dollars in guaranteed revenue, at the expense of the corporation for which he worked and its stockholders.

In 1999, Enron initiated EnronOnline, an Internet-based trading operation, which was used by virtually every energy company in the United States. By promoting the company's aggressive investment strategy, Enron's president and chief operating officer Jeffrey Skilling helped make Enron the biggest wholesaler of gas and electricity, trading over $27 billion per quarter. The corporation's financial claims, however, had to be accepted at face value. Under Skilling, Enron adopted mark-to-market accounting, in which anticipated future profits from any deal were tabulated as if currently real. Thus, Enron could record gains from what over time might turn out to be losses, as the company's fiscal health became secondary to manipulating its stock price during the so-called Tech boom. But when a company's success is measured by undocumented financial statements, actual balance sheets are inconvenient. Indeed, Enron's unscrupulous actions were often gambles to keep the deception going and so increase the stock price. An advancing price meant a continued infusion of investor capital on which debt-ridden Enron in large part subsisted (much like a financial "pyramid" or "Ponzi scheme"). Attempting to maintain the illusion, Skilling verbally attacked Wall Street analyst Richard Grubman, who questioned Enron's unusual accounting practice during a recorded conference telephone call. When Grubman complained that Enron was the only company that could not release a balance sheet along with its earnings statements, Skilling replied, "Well, thank you very much, we appreciate that ... asshole." Though the comment was met with dismay and astonishment by press, Wall Street analysts and public, it became an inside joke among many Enron employees, mocking Grubman for his perceived meddling rather than Skilling's offensiveness.

Post-bankruptcy
Enron initially planned to retain its three domestic pipeline companies as well as most of its overseas assets. However, before emerging from bankruptcy, Enron sold its domestic pipeline companies as CrossCountry Energy for $2.45 billion and later sold other assets to Vulcan Capital Management.

Enron sold its last business, Prisma Energy, during 2006, leaving Enron asset-less. During early 2007, its name was changed to Enron Creditors Recovery Corporation. Its goal is to repay the old Enron's remaining creditors and end Enron's affairs. In December 2008, it was announced that Enron's creditors would receive $7.2 billion from the company's liquidation (approximately 17 percent of the debts owed by the company). After Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase were sued for their role in abetting Enron's practices with loans, the two companies agreed to give billions of dollars to Enron's creditors. By May 2011, $21.8 billion had been distributed to the creditors, totaling 53 percent of Enron's debts at the time of bankruptcy. Enron Creditors Recovery Corporation was ultimately dissolved on November 28, 2016.

Azurix, the former water utility part of the company, remains under Enron ownership, although it is currently asset-less. It is involved in several litigations against the government of Argentina claiming compensation relating to the negligence and corruption of the local governance during its management of the Buenos Aires water concession in 1999, which resulted in substantial amounts of debt (approx. $620 million) and the eventual collapse of the branch.

Soon after emerging from bankruptcy in November 2004, Enron's new board of directors sued 11 financial institutions for helping Lay, Fastow, Skilling, and others hide Enron's true financial condition. The proceedings were dubbed the "megaclaims litigation". Among the defendants were Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup. , Enron has settled with all of the institutions, ending with Citigroup. Enron was able to obtain nearly $7.2 billion to distribute to its creditors as a result of the megaclaims litigation. As of December 2009, some claim and process payments were still being distributed.

Enron has been featured since its bankruptcy in popular culture, including in The Simpsons episodes That '90s Show    (Homer buys Enron stock while Marge chooses to keep her own Microsoft shares) and Special Edna, which features a scene of an Enron-themed amusement park ride. The 2007 film Bee Movie also featured a joke reference to a parody company of Enron called "Honron" (a play on the words honey and Enron). The 2003 documentary The Corporation made frequent references to Enron post-bankruptcy, calling the company a "bad apple".

Peak and decline of stock price
In August 2000, Enron's stock price attained its greatest value, closing at $90 on the 23rd. At this time, Enron executives, who possessed inside information on the hidden losses, began to sell their stock. At the same time, the general public and Enron's investors were told to buy the stock. Executives told the investors that the stock would continue to increase until it attained possibly the $130 to $140 range, while secretly unloading their shares.

As executives sold their shares, the price began to decrease. Investors were told to continue buying stock or hold steady if they already owned Enron because the stock price would rebound shortly. Kenneth Lay's strategy for responding to Enron's continuing problems was his demeanor. As he did many times, Lay would issue a statement or make an appearance to calm investors and assure them that Enron was doing well. In March 2001 an article by Bethany McLean appeared in Fortune magazine noting that no one understood how the company made money and questioning whether Enron stock was overvalued.

By August 15, 2001, Enron's stock price had decreased to $42. Many of the investors still trusted Lay and believed that Enron would rule the market. They continued to buy or retain their stock as the equity value decreased. As October ended, the stock had decreased to $15. Many considered this a great opportunity to buy Enron stock because of what Lay had been telling them in the media.

Lay was accused of selling more than $70 million worth of stock at this time, which he used to repay cash advances on lines of credit. He sold another $29 million worth of stock in the open market. Also, Lay's wife, Linda, was accused of selling 500,000 shares of Enron stock totaling $1.2 million on November 28, 2001. The money earned from this sale did not go to the family but rather to charitable organizations, which had already received pledges of contributions from the foundation. Records show that Mrs. Lay made the sale order sometime between 10:00 and 10:20 am. News of Enron's problems, including the millions of dollars in losses they hid, became public about 10:30 that morning, and the stock price soon decreased to less than one dollar.

Former Enron executive Paula Rieker was charged with criminal insider trading and sentenced to two years probation. Rieker obtained 18,380 Enron shares for $15.51 a share. She sold that stock for $49.77 a share in July 2001, a week before the public was told what she already knew about the $102 million loss. In 2002, after the tumultuous fall of Enron's external auditor, and management consultant, Andersen LLP, former Andersen Director, John M. Cunningham coined the phrase, "We have all been Enroned."

The fallout resulted in both Lay and Skilling being convicted of conspiracy, fraud, and insider trading. Lay died before sentencing, Skilling got 24 years and 4 months and a $45 million penalty (later reduced). Fastow was sentenced to six years of jail time, and Lou Pai settled out of court for $31.5 million.

California's deregulation and subsequent energy crisis
In October 2000, Daniel Scotto, the most renowned utility analyst on Wall Street, suspended his ratings on all energy companies conducting business in California because of the possibility that the companies would not receive full and adequate compensation for the deferred energy accounts used as the basis for the California Deregulation Plan enacted during the late 1990s. Five months later, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) was forced into bankruptcy. Republican Senator Phil Gramm, husband of Enron Board member Wendy Gramm and also the second-largest recipient of campaign contributions from Enron, succeeded in legislating California's energy commodity trading deregulation. Despite warnings from prominent consumer groups which stated that this law would give energy traders too much influence over energy commodity prices, the legislation was passed in December 2000.

As the periodical Public Citizen reported:"Because of Enron 's new, unregulated power auction, the company's 'Wholesale Services'' revenues quadrupled – from $12 billion in the first quarter of 2000 to $48.4 billion in the first quarter of 2001."After the passage of the deregulation law, California had a total of 38 Stage 3 rolling blackouts declared, until federal regulators intervened in June 2001. These blackouts occurred as a result of a poorly designed market system that was manipulated by traders and marketers, as well as from poor state management and regulatory oversight. Subsequently, Enron traders were revealed as intentionally encouraging the removal of power from the market during California's energy crisis by encouraging suppliers to shut down plants to perform unnecessary maintenance, as documented in recordings made at the time. These acts contributed to the need for rolling blackouts, which adversely affected many businesses dependent upon a reliable supply of electricity, and inconvenienced a large number of retail customers. This scattered supply increased the price, and Enron traders were thus able to sell power at premium prices, sometimes up to a factor of 20 × its normal peak value.

The callousness of the traders' attitude toward ratepayers was documented in an evidence tape of a conversation regarding the matter, and sarcastically referencing the confusion of retiree voters in Florida's Miami-Dade County in the November 2000, presidential election. "They're fucking taking all the money back from you guys? All the money you guys stole from those poor grandmothers in California?" "Yeah, Grandma Millie man. But she's the one who couldn't figure out how to fucking vote on the butterfly ballot." (Laughing from both sides.) "Yeah, now she wants her fucking money back for all the power you've charged right up, jammed right up her ass for fucking $250 a megawatt-hour."

The traders had been discussing the efforts of the Snohomish PUD in Northwestern Washington state to recover the massive overcharges that Enron had engineered. Morgan Stanley, which had taken Enron's place in the lawsuit, fought the release of the documents that the PUD had sought to make its case, but were being withheld by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Former management and corporate governance

 * {| class="wikitable"

!Corporate leadership and central management
 * Kenneth Lay: chairman, and chief executive officer
 * Jeffrey Skilling: president, chief operating officer, and CEO (February–August 2001)
 * Andrew Fastow: chief financial officer
 * Richard Causey: chief accounting officer
 * Rebecca Mark-Jusbasche: CEO of Enron International and Azurix
 * Lou Pai: CEO of Enron Energy Services
 * Forrest Hoglund: CEO of Enron Oil and Gas
 * Dennis Ulak: president of Enron Oil and Gas International
 * Jeffrey Sherrick: president of Enron Global Exploration & Production Inc.
 * Richard Gallagher: head of Enron Wholesale Global International Group
 * Kenneth "Ken" Rice: CEO of Enron Wholesale and Enron Broadband Services
 * J. Clifford Baxter: CEO of Enron North America
 * Sherron Watkins: head of Enron Global Finance
 * Jim Derrick: Enron general counsel
 * Mark Koenig: head of Enron Investor Relations
 * Joan Foley: head of Enron Human Resources
 * Richard Kinder: president and COO of Enron (1990 – December 1996);
 * Greg Whalley: president and COO of Enron (August 2001–bankruptcy)
 * Jeff McMahon: CFO of Enron (October 2001-bankruptcy)
 * }
 * Jeff McMahon: CFO of Enron (October 2001-bankruptcy)
 * }

 * {| class="wikitable"

!Board of Directors of Enron Corporation
 * Kenneth Lay: chairman of the board
 * Robert A. Belfer
 * Norman P. Blake Jr.
 * Ronnie C. Chan
 * John H. Duncan
 * Wendy L. Gramm
 * Ken L. Harrison
 * Robert K. Jaedicke
 * Charles A. LeMaistre
 * John Mendelsohn
 * Jerome J. Meyer
 * Richard K. Gallagher
 * Paulo V. Ferraz Pereira
 * Frank Savage:
 * John A. Urquhart
 * John Wakeham
 * Herbert S. Winokur Jr.
 * }
 * Herbert S. Winokur Jr.
 * }

Products
Enron traded in more than 30 different products, including oil and LNG transportation, broadband, principal investments, risk management for commodities, shipping / freight, streaming media, and water and wastewater. Products traded on EnronOnline in particular included petrochemicals, plastics, power, pulp and paper, steel, and weather risk management. Enron was also an extensive futures trader, including sugar, coffee, grains, hogs, and other meat futures. At the time of its bankruptcy filing in December 2001, Enron was structured into seven distinct business units.

Online marketplace services

 * EnronOnline (commodity trading platform).
 * ClickPaper (transaction platform for pulp, paper, and wood products).
 * EnronCredit (the first global online credit department to provide live credit prices and enable business-to-business customers to hedge credit exposure instantly via the Internet).
 * ePowerOnline (customer interface for Enron Broadband Services).
 * Enron Direct (sales of fixed-price contracts for gas and electricity; Europe only).
 * EnergyDesk (energy-related derivatives trading; Europe only).
 * NewPowerCompany (online energy trading, joint venture with IBM and AOL).
 * Enron Weather (weather derivatives).
 * DealBench (online business services).
 * Water2Water (water storage, supply, and quality credits trading).
 * HotTap (customer interface for Enron's U.S. gas pipeline businesses).
 * Enromarkt (business-to-business pricing and information platform; Germany only).

Broadband services

 * Enron Intelligent Network (broadband content delivery).
 * Enron Media Services (risk management services for media content companies).
 * Customizable Bandwidth Solutions (bandwidth and fiber products trading).
 * Streaming Media Applications (live or on-demand Internet broadcasting applications).

Energy and commodities services

 * Enron Power (electricity wholesaling).
 * Enron Natural Gas (natural gas wholesaling).
 * Enron Clean Fuels (biofuel wholesaling).
 * Enron Pulp and Paper, Packaging, and Lumber (risk management derivatives for the forest products industry).
 * Enron Coal and Emissions (coal wholesaling and offsets trading).
 * Enron Plastics and Petrochemicals (price risk management for polymers, olefins, methanol, aromatics, and natural gas liquids).
 * Enron Weather Risk Management (Weather Derivatives).
 * Enron Steel (financial swap contracts and spot pricing for the steel industry).
 * Enron Crude Oil and Oil Products (petroleum hedging).
 * Enron Wind Power Services (wind turbine manufacturing and wind farm operation).
 * MG Plc. (U.K. metals merchant).
 * Enron Energy Services (Selling services to industrial end users).
 * Enron International (operation of all overseas assets).

Commercial and industrial outsourcing services

 * Commodity Management.
 * Energy Asset Management.
 * Energy Information Management.
 * Facility Management.
 * Capital Management.
 * Azurix Inc. (water utilities and infrastructure).

Project development and management services

 * Energy Infrastructure Development (developing, financing, and operation of power plants and related projects).
 * Enron Global Exploration & Production Inc. (upstream oil and natural gas international development).
 * Elektro Electricidade e Servicos SA (Brazilian electric utility).
 * Northern Border Pipeline.
 * Houston Pipeline.
 * Transwestern Pipeline.
 * Florida Gas Transmission.
 * Northern Natural Gas Company.
 * Natural Gas Storage.
 * Compression Services.
 * Gas Processing and Treatment.
 * Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Services.
 * EOTT Energy Inc. (oil transportation).

Enron manufactured gas valves, circuit breakers, thermostats, and electrical equipment in Venezuela using INSELA SA, a 50–50 joint venture with General Electric. Enron owned three paper and pulp products companies: Garden State Paper, a newsprint mill; as well as Papiers Stadacona and St. Aurelie Timberlands. Enron had a controlling stake in the Louisiana-based petroleum exploration and production company Mariner Energy.

EnronOnline
Enron opened EnronOnline, an electronic trading platform for energy commodities, on November 29, 1999. Conceptualized by the company's European Gas Trading team, it was the first web-based transaction system that allowed buyers and sellers to buy, sell, and trade commodity products globally. It allowed users to do business only with Enron. The site allowed Enron to transact with participants in the global energy markets. The main commodities offered on EnronOnline were natural gas and electricity, although there were 500 other products including credit derivatives, bankruptcy swaps, pulp, gas, plastics, paper, steel, metals, freight, and TV commercial time. At its maximum, more than $6 billion worth of commodities were transacted using EnronOnline every day, but specialists questioned how Enron reported trades and calculated its profits, saying that the same fraudulent accounting that was rampant at Enron's other operations may have been used in trading.

After Enron's bankruptcy in late 2001, EnronOnline was sold to the Swiss financial giant UBS. Within a year, UBS abandoned its efforts to relaunch the division and closed it in November 2002.

Enron International
Enron International (EI) was Enron's wholesale asset development and asset management business. Its primary emphasis was developing and building natural gas power plants outside North America. Enron Engineering and Construction Company (EECC) was a wholly owned subsidiary of Enron International and built almost all of Enron International's power plants. Unlike other business units of Enron, Enron International had a strong cash flow at the bankruptcy filing. Enron International consisted of all of Enron's foreign power projects, including ones in Europe.

The company's Teesside plant was one of the largest gas-fired power stations in the world, built and operated by Enron from 1989, and produced 3 percent of the United Kingdom's energy needs. Enron owned half of the plant's equity, with the remaining 50 percent split between four regional electricity companies.

Management
Rebecca Mark was the CEO of Enron International until she resigned to manage Enron's newly acquired water business, Azurix, in 1997. Mark had a major role in the development of the Dabhol project in India, Enron's largest international endeavor.

Projects
Enron International constructed power plants and pipelines across the globe. Some are presently still operating, including the massive Teesside plant in England. Others, like a barge-mounted plant off Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, cost Enron money through lawsuits and investment losses. Puerto Plata was a barge-mounted power plant next to the hotel Hotelero del Atlantico. When the plant was activated, winds blew soot from the plant onto the hotel guests' meals, blackening their food. The winds also blew garbage from nearby slums into the plant's water-intake system. For some time the only solution was to hire men who would row out and push the garbage away with their paddles. Through mid-2000 the company collected a paltry $3.5 million from a $95 million investment. Enron also had other investment projects in Europe, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Jamaica, Venezuela, elsewhere in South America and across the Caribbean.

India
Around 1992 Indian experts came to the United States to find energy investors to help with India's energy shortage problems. During December 1993, Enron finalized a 20-year power-purchase contract with the Maharashtra State Electricity Board. The contract allowed Enron to construct a massive 2,015 megawatt power plant on a remote volcanic bluff 100 mi south of Mumbai through a two-phase project called Dabhol Power Station. Construction would be completed in two phases, and Enron would form the Dabhol Power Company to help manage the plant. The power project was the first step in a $20 billion scheme to help rebuild and stabilize India's power grid. Enron, GE (which was selling turbines to the project), and Bechtel (which was constructing the plant), each contributed 10% equity with the remaining 90% covered by the MSEB

In 1996, when India's Congress Party was no longer in power, the Indian government assessed the project as being excessively expensive, refused to pay for the plant, and stopped construction. The MSEB was required by contract to continue to pay Enron plant maintenance charges, even if no power was purchased from the plant. The MSEB determined that it could not afford to purchase the power (at Rs. 8 per unit kWh) charged by Enron. The plant operator was unable to find alternate customers for Dabhol power due to the absence of a free market in the regulated structure of utilities in India.

By 2000, the Dabhol plant was almost complete and Phase 1 had begun producing power. Enron as a whole, however, was heavily overextended, and in the summer of that year Mark and all the key executives at Enron International were asked to resign from Enron to reshape the company and get rid of asset businesses. Shortly thereafter a payment dispute with MSEB ensued, and Enron issued a stop-work order on the plant in June 2001. From 1996 until Enron's bankruptcy in 2001 the company tried to revive the project and revive interest in India's need for the power plant without success. By December 2001 the Enron scandal and bankruptcy cut short any opportunity to revive the construction and complete the plant. In 2005, an Indian government-run company, Ratnagiri Gas and Power, was set up to finish construction on the Dabhol facility and operate the plant.

Project summer
During the summer of 2001, Enron attempted to sell several of Enron International's assets, many of which were not sold. The public and media believed it was unknown why Enron wanted to sell these assets, suspecting it was because Enron needed cash. Employees who worked with company assets were told in 2000 that Jeff Skilling believed that business assets were an outdated means of a company's worth, and instead he wanted to build a company based on "intellectual assets".

Enron Global Exploration & Production, Inc.
Enron Global Exploration & Production Inc. (EGEP) was an Enron subsidiary that was born from the split of domestic assets via EOG Resources (formerly Enron Oil and Gas EOG) and international assets via EGEP (formerly Enron Oil and Gas Int'l, Ltd EOGIL). Among the EGEP assets were the Panna-Mukta and the South Tapti fields, discovered by the Indian state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), which operated the fields initially. December 1994, a joint venture began between ONGC (40%), Enron (30%) and Reliance (30%). Mid-year of 2002, British Gas (BG) completed the acquisition of EGEP's 30% share of the Panna-Mukta and Tapti fields for $350 million, a few months before Enron filed bankruptcy.

Enron Prize for Distinguished Public Service
During the mid-1990s, Enron established an endowment for the Enron Prize for Distinguished Public Service, awarded by Rice University's Baker Institute to "recognize outstanding individuals for their contributions to public service". Recipients were:
 * 1995: Colin Powell.
 * 1997: Mikhail Gorbachev.
 * 1999 (early): Eduard Shevardnadze.
 * 1999 (late): Nelson Mandela.
 * 2001: Alan Greenspan.

Greenspan, because of his position as the Fed chairman, was not at liberty to accept the $10,000 honorarium, the $15,000 sculpture, nor the crystal trophy, but only accepted the "honor" of being named an Enron Prize recipient. The situation was further complicated because a few days earlier, Enron had filed paperwork admitting it had falsified financial statements for five years. Greenspan did not mention Enron a single time during his speech. At the ceremony, Ken Lay stated, "I'm looking forward to our first woman recipient." The next morning, it was reported in the Houston Chronicle that no decision had been made on whether the name of the prize would be changed. 19 days after the prize was awarded to Greenspan, Enron declared bankruptcy.

In early 2002, Enron was awarded Harvard's (in)famous Ig Nobel Prize for "Most Creative Use of Imaginary Numbers". The various former members of the Enron management team all refused to accept the award in person, although no reason was given at the time.

Enron's influence on politics

 * George W. Bush, sitting U.S. president at the time of Enron's collapse, received $312,500 to his campaigns and $413,800 to his presidential war chest and inaugural fund.
 * Dick Cheney, sitting U.S. vice president at the time of Enron's collapse, met with Enron executives six times to develop a new energy policy. He refused to show minutes to Congress.
 * John Ashcroft, the attorney general at the time, recused himself from the DOJ's investigation into Enron due to receiving $57,499 when running for a senate seat in 2000.
 * Lawrence Lindsay, White House Economic Advisor at the time, made $50,000 as a consultant with Enron before moving to the White House in 2000.
 * Karl Rove, White House senior advisor at the time, waited five months before selling $100,000 of Enron stock.
 * Marc F. Racicot, Republican National Committee chairman nominee at the time, was handpicked by George W. Bush to serve as a lawyer with Bracewell LLP, a firm that lobbied for Enron.

"Women of Enron"
In 2002, the Playboy magazine featured a nude pictorial "Women of Enron", with ten former and contemporary Enron female employees. The women said they posed for the fun and to earn some money.

Data

 * Yahoo!: Enron Corp. company profile
 * Enron Creditors Recovery Corp. profile on Hoovers.com
 * Enron Creditors Recovery Corp. profile, Google Finance
 * Enron Chronology..
 * (Contains the ENRON historical stock quotes from 1997 to 2002.)

title: Enron


text:
Eusebius of Alexandria

Eusebius of Alexandria (Εὐσέβιος) is a 6th-century Christian author to whom certain extant homilies are attributed.

Biography
Nothing is known of the author. In all events, he was not a patriarch of Alexandria, as is affirmed in an early biography, written by one Johannes, a notary, and stating that Eusebius was called by Cyril to be his successor in the episcopate.

There has been much dispute regarding the details of his life and the age in which he lived. Galland (Vet. Patr. Biblioth., VIII, 23) says: "de Eusebio qui vulgo dicitur episcopus Alexandræ incerta omnia" (Concerning Eusebius, commonly called bishop of Alexandria there is nothing sure). His writings have been attributed to Eusebius of Emesa, Eusebius of Cæsarea, and others. According to an old biography said to have been written by his notary, the monk John, and discovered by Cardinal Mai, he lived in the fifth century and led a monastic life near Alexandria. The fame of his virtues attracted the attention of Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, who visited him with his clergy, and in 444, when dying, had him elected his successor, and consecrated him bishop, though much against his will. Eusebius displayed great zeal in the exercise of his office and did much good by his preaching. Among those he converted was a certain Alexander, a man of senatorial rank. After having ruled his see for seven or, according to another account, for twenty years, he made Alexander his successor and retired to the desert, whence Cyril had summoned him and there died in the odor of sanctity.

While Mai seems to have established the existence of a Eusebius of Alexandria who lived in the fifth century, it had been objected than neither the name of Eusebius or his successor Alexander, appears in the list of the occupants of that ancient see. Dioscurus is mentioned as the immediate successor of Cyril. Nor does the style of the homilies seem on the whole in keeping with the age of Cyril. It may be noted, however, that the biographer of Eusebius expressly states that the Cyril in question is the great opponent of Nestorius. Various solution of the difficulty have been proposed. Thilo thinks that the authorship of the homilies is to be assigned either to a certain monk – one of four brothers 3 of the fifth century, or to a presbyter and court chaplain of Justinian I, who took an active part in the theological strifes of the sixth century. Mai suggests that after the death of Cyril, there were two bishops at Alexandria, Dioscurus, the Monophysite leader, and Eusebius, the head of the Catholic party. The homilies cover a variety of subjects, and the author is one of the earliest patristic witnesses to the doctrine regarding the descent of Christ into Hell. A list of homilies with the complete text is given by Mai. They may also be found in Migne, which was published with an introduction by Rand in "Modern Philology", II, 261.

Works
These homilies enjoyed some renown in the Eastern Church in the sixth and seventh centuries.

The discourses belong probably to the fifth or sixth century, and possibly originated in Alexandria. They deal with the life of Jesus of Nazareth and with questions of ecclesiastical life and practise, which they resolve in a monastic-ascetic way. Their literary character is not quite clear; while most of them are adapted for public delivery, not a few bear the character of ecclesiastical pronouncements. They are now in print except four included among John Chrysostom's works. The fragments preserved in the so-called Sacra parallela are to be found in Karl Holl's Fragmente vornicänischer Kirchenväter. A homily concerning the observance of Sunday is attributed by Zahn to Eusebius of Emesa.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Eusebius of Alexandria


text:
Eusebius of Angers

Eusebius (Bruno) of Angers (died September 1, 1081) was bishop of Angers, France.

He first appears in the historical record as bishop of Angers at the synod of Rheims in 1049, and for a long time had been an adherent of Berengar's doctrine of the Lord's Supper. As such he was highly regarded by Berengar himself and by his opponents Theodwin of Liège, Durand of Troarne, and Humbert of Mourmoutiers. But when he recognized the strength of the opposition, he favored a compromise; at any rate he advised Berengar is 1054 to swear to the formula presented to him.

Nevertheless, Berengar considered him his friend many years later and requested him to silence a certain Galfrid Martini or to arrange a disputation. In his reply Eusebius not only regretted the whole controversy, but also stated that he would abide by the words of the Bible, according to which the bread and wine after the consecration become the body and blood of the Lord (see transubstantiation); if one asks how this can take place, the answer must be that it is not according to the order of nature but in accordance with the divine omnipotence; at any rate one must be careful not to give offense to the plain Christian. The epistle is a downright renunciation of Berengar in case he should still maintain his view.

In favor of the supposition that Eusebius changed his opinion from deference to the Count of Anjou, the decided opponent of Berengar and his doctrine, it can be adduced that he did not defend Berengar against the hostilities of the court, and that for a long time he sided with this violent prince. It is also possible that the fact impressed itself upon Eusebius that the religious consciousness of the time more and more opposed Berengar. Our knowledge, however, is too fragmentary to pass a very accurate sentence.

title: Eusebius of Angers


text:
Eusebius

Eusebius of Caesarea (Εὐσέβιος τῆς Καισαρείας ; c. 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek Syro-Palestinian  historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima in the Roman province of Syria Palaestina.

Together with Pamphilus, Eusebius was a scholar of the biblical canon and is regarded as one of the most learned Christians during late antiquity. He wrote the Demonstrations of the Gospel, Preparations for the Gospel and On Discrepancies between the Gospels, studies of the biblical text. His work Onomasticon is an early geographical lexicon of places in the Holy Land mentioned in the Bible. As "Father of Church History" (not to be confused with the title of Church Father), he produced the Ecclesiastical History, On the Life of Pamphilus, the Chronicle and On the Martyrs. He also produced a biographical work on Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor, who was Augustus between AD 306 and AD 337.

Early life
Most scholars date the birth of Eusebius to some point between AD 260 and 265. He was most likely born in or around Caesarea Maritima. Nothing is known about his parents. He was baptized and instructed in the city, and lived in Syria Palaestina in 296, when Diocletian's army passed through the region (in the Life of Constantine, Eusebius recalls seeing Constantine traveling with the army).

Eusebius was made presbyter by Agapius of Caesarea. Some, like theologian and ecclesiastical historian John Henry Newman, understand Eusebius' statement that he had heard Dorotheus of Tyre "expound the Scriptures wisely in the Church" to indicate that Eusebius was Dorotheus' pupil while the priest was resident in Antioch; others, like the scholar D. S. Wallace-Hadrill, deem the phrase too ambiguous to support the contention.

Through the activities of the theologian Origen (185/6–254) and the school of his follower Pamphilus (later 3rd century – 309), Caesarea became a center of Christian learning. Origen was largely responsible for the collection of usage information, or which churches were using which gospels, regarding the texts which became the New Testament. The information used to create the late-fourth-century Easter Letter, which declared accepted Christian writings, was probably based on the Ecclesiastical History [HE] of Eusebius of Caesarea, wherein he uses the information passed on to him by Origen to create both his list at HE 3:25 and Origen's list at HE 6:25. Eusebius got his information about what texts were accepted by the third-century churches throughout the known world, a great deal of which Origen knew of firsthand from his extensive travels, from the library and writings of Origen.

On his deathbed, Origen had made a bequest of his private library to the Christian community in the city. Together with the books of his patron Ambrosius, Origen's library (including the original manuscripts of his works ) formed the core of the collection that Pamphilus established. Pamphilus also managed a school that was similar to (or perhaps a re-establishment of ) that of Origen. Pamphilus was compared to Demetrius of Phalerum and Pisistratus, for he had gathered Bibles "from all parts of the world". Like his model Origen, Pamphilus maintained close contact with his students. Eusebius, in his history of the persecutions, alludes to the fact that many of the Caesarean martyrs lived together, presumably under Pamphilus.

Soon after Pamphilus settled in Caesarea (ca. 280s), he began teaching Eusebius, who was then somewhere between twenty and twenty-five. Because of his close relationship with his schoolmaster, Eusebius was sometimes called Eusebius Pamphili: "Eusebius, son of Pamphilus". The name may also indicate that Eusebius was made Pamphilus' heir. Pamphilus gave Eusebius a strong admiration for the thought of Origen. Neither Pamphilus nor Eusebius knew Origen personally; Pamphilus probably picked up Origenist ideas during his studies under Pierius (nicknamed "Origen Junior" ) in Alexandria.

Eusebius' Preparation for the Gospel bears witness to the literary tastes of Origen: Eusebius quotes no comedy, tragedy, or lyric poetry, but makes reference to all the works of Plato and to an extensive range of later philosophic works, largely from Middle Platonists from Philo to the late 2nd century. Whatever its secular contents, the primary aim of Origen and Pamphilus' school was to promote sacred learning. The library's biblical and theological contents were more impressive: Origen's Hexapla and Tetrapla; a copy of the original Aramaic version of the Gospel of Matthew; and many of Origen's own writings. Marginal comments in extant manuscripts note that Pamphilus and his friends and pupils, including Eusebius, corrected and revised much of the biblical text in their library. Their efforts made the hexaplaric Septuagint text increasingly popular in Syria and Palestine. Soon after joining Pamphilus' school, Eusebius started helping his master expand the library's collections and broaden access to its resources. At about this time Eusebius compiled a Collection of Ancient Martyrdoms, presumably for use as a general reference tool.

In the 290s, Eusebius began work on his most important work, the Ecclesiastical History, a narrative history of the Church and Christian community from the Apostolic Age to Eusebius' own time. At about the same time, he worked on his Chronicle, a universal calendar of events from the Creation to, again, Eusebius' own time. He completed the first editions of the Ecclesiastical History and Chronicle before 300.

Bishop of Caesarea
Eusebius succeeded Agapius as Bishop of Caesarea soon after 313 and was called on by Arius who had been excommunicated by his bishop Alexander of Alexandria. An episcopal council in Caesarea pronounced Arius blameless. Eusebius enjoyed the favor of the Emperor Constantine. Because of this he was called upon to present the creed of his own church to the 318 attendees of the Council of Nicaea in 325. However, the anti-Arian creed from Palestine prevailed, becoming the basis for the Nicene Creed.

The theological views of Arius, that taught the subordination of the Son to the Father, continued to be controversial. Eustathius of Antioch strongly opposed the growing influence of Origen's theology as the root of Arianism. Eusebius, an admirer of Origen, was reproached by Eustathius for deviating from the Nicene faith. Eusebius prevailed and Eustathius was deposed at a synod in Antioch.

However, Athanasius of Alexandria became a more powerful opponent and in 334 he was summoned before a synod in Caesarea (which he refused to attend). In the following year, he was again summoned before a synod in Tyre at which Eusebius of Caesarea presided. Athanasius, foreseeing the result, went to Constantinople to bring his cause before the Emperor. Constantine called the bishops to his court, among them Eusebius. Athanasius was condemned and exiled at the end of 335. Eusebius remained in the Emperor's favour throughout this time and more than once was exonerated with the explicit approval of the Emperor Constantine. After the Emperor's death (c. 337), Eusebius wrote the Life of Constantine, an important historical work because of eyewitness accounts and the use of primary sources.

Works
Of the extensive literary activity of Eusebius, a relatively large portion has been preserved. Although posterity suspected him of Arianism, Eusebius had made himself indispensable by his method of authorship; his comprehensive and careful excerpts from original sources saved his successors the painstaking labor of original research. Hence, much has been preserved, quoted by Eusebius, which otherwise would have been lost.

The literary productions of Eusebius reflect on the whole the course of his life. At first, he occupied himself with works on biblical criticism under the influence of Pamphilus and probably of Dorotheus of Tyre of the School of Antioch. Afterward, the persecutions under Diocletian and Galerius directed his attention to the martyrs of his own time and the past, and this led him to the history of the whole Church and finally to the history of the world, which, to him, was only a preparation for ecclesiastical history.

Then followed the time of the Arian controversies, and dogmatic questions came into the foreground. Christianity at last found recognition by the State; and this brought new problems – apologies of a different sort had to be prepared. Lastly, Eusebius wrote eulogies in praise of Constantine. To all this activity must be added numerous writings of a miscellaneous nature, addresses, letters, and the like, and exegetical works that extended over the whole of his life and that include both commentaries and an important treatise on the location of biblical place names and the distances between these cities.

Biblical text criticism

Pamphilus and Eusebius occupied themselves with the textual criticism of the Septuagint text of the Old Testament and especially of the New Testament. An edition of the Septuagint seems to have been already prepared by Origen, which, according to Jerome, was revised and circulated by Eusebius and Pamphilus. For an easier survey of the material of the four Evangelists, Eusebius divided his edition of the New Testament into paragraphs and provided it with a synoptical table so that it might be easier to find the pericopes that belong together. These canon tables or "Eusebian canons" remained in use throughout the Middle Ages, and illuminated manuscript versions are important for the study of early medieval art, as they are the most elaborately decorated pages of many Gospel books. Eusebius detailed in Epistula ad Carpianum how to use his canons.

Chronicle
The Chronicle (Παντοδαπὴ Ἱστορία (Pantodape historia)) is divided into two parts. The first part, the Chronography (Χρονογραφία (Chronographia)), gives an epitome of universal history from the sources, arranged according to nations. The second part, the Canons (Χρονικοὶ Κανόνες (Chronikoi kanones)), furnishes a synchronism of the historical material in parallel columns, the equivalent of a parallel timeline.

The work as a whole has been lost in the original Greek, but it may be reconstructed from later chronographists of the Byzantine school who made excerpts from the work, especially George Syncellus. The tables of the second part have been completely preserved in a Latin translation by Jerome, and both parts are still extant in an Armenian translation. The loss of the Greek originals has given the Armenian translation a special importance; thus, the first part of Eusebius' Chronicle, of which only a few fragments exist in Greek, has been preserved entirely in Armenian, though with lacunae. The Chronicle as preserved extends to the year 325.

Church History
In his Church History or Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius wrote the first surviving history of the Christian Church as a chronologically ordered account, based on earlier sources, complete from the period of the Apostles to his own epoch. The time scheme correlated the history with the reigns of the Roman Emperors, and the scope was broad. Included were the bishops and other teachers of the Church, Christian relations with the Jews and those deemed heretical, and the Christian martyrs through 324. Although its accuracy and biases have been questioned, it remains an important source on the early church due to Eusebius's access to materials now lost.

Life of Constantine
Eusebius' Life of Constantine (Vita Constantini) is a eulogy or panegyric, and therefore its style and selection of facts are affected by its purpose, rendering it inadequate as a continuation of the Church History. As the historian Socrates Scholasticus said, at the opening of his history which was designed as a continuation of Eusebius, "Also in writing the life of Constantine, this same author has but slightly treated of matters regarding Arius, being more intent on the rhetorical finish of his composition and the praises of the emperor than on an accurate statement of facts." The work was unfinished at Eusebius' death. Some scholars have questioned the Eusebian authorship of this work.

Conversion of Constantine according to Eusebius
Writing after Constantine had died, Eusebius claimed that the emperor himself had recounted to him that some time between the death of his father – the augustus Constantius – and his final battle against his rival Maxentius as augustus in the West, Constantine experienced a vision in which he and his soldiers beheld a Christian symbol, "a cross-shaped trophy formed from light", above the sun at midday. Attached to the symbol was the phrase "by this conquer" (ἐν τούτῳ νίκα), a phrase often rendered into Latin as "in hoc signo vinces". In a dream that night "the Christ of God appeared to him with the sign which had appeared in the sky, and urged him to make himself a copy of the sign which had appeared in the sky, and to use this as a protection against the attacks of the enemy." Eusebius relates that this happened "on a campaign he [Constantine] was conducting somewhere". It is unclear from Eusebius's description whether the shields were marked with a Christian cross or with a chi-rho, a staurogram, or another similar symbol.

The Latin text De mortibus persecutorum contains an early account of the 28 October 312 Battle of the Milvian Bridge written by Lactantius probably in 313, the year following the battle. Lactantius does not mention a vision in the sky but describes a revelatory dream on the eve of battle. Eusebius's work of that time, his Church History, also makes no mention of the vision. The Arch of Constantine, constructed in AD 315, neither depicts a vision nor any Christian insignia in its depiction of the battle. In his posthumous biography of Constantine, Eusebius agrees with Lactantius that Constantine received instructions in a dream to apply a Christian symbol as a device to his soldiers' shields, but unlike Lactantius and subsequent Christian tradition, Eusebius does not date the events to October 312 and does not connect Constantine's vision and dream-vision with the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.

Minor historical works
Before he compiled his church history, Eusebius edited a collection of martyrdoms of the earlier period and a biography of Pamphilus. The martyrology has not survived as a whole, but it has been preserved almost completely in parts. It contained:
 * an epistle of the congregation of Smyrna concerning the martyrdom of Polycarp;
 * the martyrdom of Pionius;
 * the martyrdoms of Carpus, Papylus, and Agathonike;
 * the martyrdoms in the congregations of Vienne and Lyon;
 * the martyrdom of Apollonius.

Of the life of Pamphilus, only a fragment survives. A work on the martyrs of Palestine in the time of Diocletian was composed after 311; numerous fragments are scattered in legendaries which have yet to be collected. The life of Constantine was compiled after the death of the emperor and the election of his sons as Augusti (337). It is more a rhetorical eulogy on the emperor than a history but is of great value on account of numerous documents incorporated into it.

Apologetic and dogmatic works
To the class of apologetic and dogmatic works belong:
 * The Apology for Origen, the first five books of which, according to the definite statement of Photius, were written by Pamphilus in prison, with the assistance of Eusebius. Eusebius added the sixth book after the death of Pamphilus. We possess only a Latin translation of the first book, made by Rufinus.
 * A treatise against Hierocles (a Roman governor), in which Eusebius combated the former's glorification of Apollonius of Tyana in a work entitled A Truth-loving Discourse (Greek: Philalethes logos); in spite of manuscript attribution to Eusebius, however, it has been argued (by Thomas Hagg and more recently, Aaron Johnson) that this treatise "Against Hierocles" was written by someone other than Eusebius of Caesarea.
 * Praeparatio evangelica (Preparation for the Gospel), commonly known by its Latin title, which attempts to prove the excellence of Christianity over every pagan religion and philosophy. The Praeparatio consists of fifteen books which have been completely preserved. Eusebius considered it an introduction to Christianity for pagans. But its value for many later readers is more because Eusebius studded this work with so many lively fragments from historians and philosophers which are nowhere else preserved. Here alone is preserved Pyrrho's translation of the Buddhist Three marks of existence upon which Pyrrho based Pyrrhonism. Here alone is a summary of the writings of the Phoenician priest Sanchuniathon of which the accuracy has been shown by the mythological accounts found on the Ugaritic tables. Here alone is the account from Diodorus Siculus's sixth book of Euhemerus' wondrous voyage to the island of Panchaea where Euhemerus purports to have found his true history of the gods. And here almost alone is preserved writings of the neo-Platonist philosopher Atticus along with so much else.
 * Demonstratio evangelica (Proof of the Gospel) is closely connected to the Praeparatio and comprised originally twenty books of which ten have been completely preserved as well as a fragment of the fifteenth. Here Eusebius treats of the person of Jesus Christ. The work was probably finished before 311;
 * Another work which originated in the time of the persecution, entitled Prophetic Extracts (Eclogae propheticae). It discusses in four books the Messianic texts of Scripture. The work is merely the surviving portion (books 6–9) of the General elementary introduction to the Christian faith, now lost. The fragments given as the Commentary on Luke in the PG have been claimed to derive from the missing tenth book of the General Elementary Introduction (see D. S. Wallace-Hadrill); however, Aaron Johnson has argued that they cannot be associated with this work.

 * The treatise On Divine Manifestation or On the Theophania (Peri theophaneias), of unknown date. It treats of the incarnation of the Divine Logos, and its contents are in many cases identical with the Demonstratio evangelica. Only fragments are preserved in Greek, but a complete Syriac translation of the Theophania survives in an early 5th-century manuscript. Samuel Lee, the editor (1842) and translator (1843) of the Syriac Theophania, thought that the work must have been written "after the general peace restored to the Church by Constantine, and before either the 'Praeparatio,' or the 'Demonstratio Evangelica,' was written ...It appears probable ... therefore, that this was one of the first productions of Eusebius, if not the first after the persecutions ceased." Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea On the Theophania, or Divine Manifestation of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (Cambridge, 1843), pp. xxi–xxii. Lee's full passage is as follows: "As to the period at which it was written, I think it must have been, after the general peace restored to the Church by Constantine, and before either the "Praeparatio", or the "Demonstratio Evangelica", was written. My reason for the first of these suppositions is: Our author speaks repeatedly of the peace restored to the Church; of Churches and Schools restored, or then built for the first time : of the nourishing state of the Church of Caesarea; of the extended, and then successfully extending, state of Christianity : all of which could not have been said during the times of the last, and most severe persecution. My reasons for the second of these suppositions are, the considerations that whatever portions of this Work are found, either in the "Praeparatio", |22 the "Demonstratio Evangelica", or the " Oratio de laudibus Constantini", they there occur in no regular sequence of argument as they do in this Work: especially in the latter, into which they have been carried evidently for the purpose of lengthening out a speech. Besides, many of these places are amplified in these works, particularly in the two former as remarked in my notes; which seems to suggest, that such additions were made either to accommodate these to the new soil, into which they had been so transplanted, or, to supply some new matter, which had suggested itself to our author. And again, as both the "Praeparatio" and "Demonstratio Evangelica", are works which must have required very considerable time to complete them, and which would even then be unfit for general circulation; it appears probable to me, that this more popular, and more useful work, was first composed and published, and that the other two,--illustrating as they generally do, some particular points only,--argued in order in our Work,-- were reserved for the reading and occasional writing of our author during a considerable number of years, as well for the satisfaction of his own mind, as for the general reading of the learned. It appears probable to me therefore, that this was one of the first productions of Eusebius, if not the first after the persecutions ceased." Hugo Gressmann, noting in 1904 that the Demonstratio seems to be mentioned at IV. 37 and V. 1, and that II. 14 seems to mention the extant practice of temple prostitution at Hieropolis in Phoenica, concluded that the Theophania was probably written shortly after 324. Others have suggested a date as late as 337.
 * A polemical treatise against Marcellus of Ancyra, the Against Marcellus, dating from about 337;
 * A supplement to the last-named work, also against Marcellus, entitled Ecclesiastical Theology, in which he defended the Nicene doctrine of the Logos against the party of Athanasius.

A number of writings, belonging in this category, have been entirely lost.

Exegetical and miscellaneous works
All of the exegetical works of Eusebius have suffered damage in transmission. The majority of them are known to us only from long portions quoted in Byzantine catena-commentaries. However these portions are very extensive. Extant are:
 * An enormous Commentary on the Psalms;
 * A commentary on Isaiah, discovered more or less complete in a manuscript in Florence early in the 20th century and published 50 years later;
 * Small fragments of commentaries on Romans and 1 Corinthians.

Eusebius also wrote a work 'Quaestiones ad Stephanum et Marinum, On the Differences of the Gospels (including solutions). This was written for the purpose of harmonizing the contradictions in the reports of the different Evangelists. This work was recently (2011) translated into the English language by David J. Miller and Adam C. McCollum and was published under the name Eusebius of Caesarea: Gospel Problems and Solutions. The original work was also translated into Syriac, and lengthy quotations exist in a catena in that language, and also in Arabic catenas.

Eusebius also wrote treatises on the biblical past; these three treatises have been lost. They were:

 * A work on the Greek equivalents of Hebrew Gentilic nouns;
 * A description of old Judea with an account of the loss of the ten tribes;
 * A plan of Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon.

The addresses and sermons of Eusebius are mostly lost, but some have been preserved, e.g., a sermon on the consecration of the church in Tyre and an address on the thirtieth anniversary of the reign of Constantine (336).

Most of Eusebius' letters are lost. His letters to Carpianus and Flacillus exist complete. Fragments of a letter to the empress Constantia also exists.

Doctrine
Eusebius is fairly unusual in his preterist, or fulfilled, eschatological view. Saying "the Holy Scriptures foretell that there will be unmistakable signs of the Coming of Christ. Now there were among the Hebrews three outstanding offices of dignity, which made the nation famous, firstly the kingship, secondly that of prophet, and lastly the high priesthood. The prophecies said that the abolition and complete destruction of all these three together would be the sign of the presence of the Christ. And that the proofs that the times had come, would lie in the ceasing of the Mosaic worship, the desolation of Jerusalem and its Temple, and the subjection of the whole Jewish race to its enemies. ...The holy oracles foretold that all these changes, which had not been made in the days of the prophets of old, would take place at the coming of the Christ, which I will presently shew to have been fulfilled as never before in accordance with the predictions" (Demonstratio Evangelica VIII).

From a dogmatic point of view, Eusebius is related in his views to Origen. Like Origen, he started from the fundamental thought of the absolute sovereignty (monarchia) of God. God is the cause of all beings. But he is not merely a cause; in him everything good is included, from him all life originates, and he is the source of all virtue. God sent Christ into the world that it may partake of the blessings included in the essence of God. Eusebius expressly distinguishes the Son as distinct from Father as a ray is also distinct from its source the sun.

Eusebius held that men were sinners by their own free choice and not by the necessity of their natures. Eusebius said: The Creator of all things has impressed a natural law upon the soul of every man, as an assistant and ally in his conduct, pointing out to him the right way by this law; but, by the free liberty with which he is endowed, making the choice of what is best worthy of praise and acceptance, he has acted rightly, not by force, but from his own free-will, when he had it in his power to act otherwise, As, again, making him who chooses what is worst, deserving of blame and punishment, because he has by his own motion neglected the natural law, and becoming the origin and fountain of wickedness, and misusing himself, not from any extraneous necessity, but from free will and judgment. The fault is in him who chooses, not in God. For God has not made nature or the substance of the soul bad; for he who is good can make nothing but what is good. Everything is good which is according to nature. Every rational soul has naturally a good free-will, formed for the choice of what is good. But when a man acts wrongly, nature is not to be blamed; for what is wrong, takes place not according to nature, but contrary to nature, it being the work of choice, and not of nature.

A letter Eusebius is supposed to have written to Constantine's daughter Constantina, refusing to fulfill her request for images of Christ, was quoted in the decrees (now lost) of the Iconoclast Council of Hieria in 754, and later quoted in part in the rebuttal of the Hieria decrees in the Second Council of Nicaea of 787, now the only source from which some of the text is known. The authenticity or authorship of the letter remains uncertain.

Nicene Creed
In the June 2002 issue of the Church History journal, Pier Franco Beatrice reports that Eusebius testified that the word homoousios (consubstantial) "was inserted in the Nicene Creed solely by the personal order of Constantine." "According to Eusebius of Caesarea, the word homoousios was inserted in the Nicene Creed solely by the personal order of Constantine. But this statement is highly problematic. It is very difficult to explain the seeming paradoxical fact that this word, along with the explanation given by Constantine, was accepted by the 'Arian' Eusebius, whereas it has left no traces at all in the works of his opponents, the leaders of the anti-Arian party such as Alexander of Alexandria, Ossius of Cordova, Marcellus of Ancyra, and Eustathius of Antioch, who are usually considered Constantine's theological advisers and the strongest supporters of the council. Neither before nor during Constantine's time is there any evidence of a normal, well-established Christian use of the term homoousios in its strictly Trinitarian meaning. Having once excluded any relationship of the Nicene homoousios with the Christian tradition, it becomes legitimate to propose a new explanation, based on an analysis of two pagan documents which have so far never been taken into account. The main thesis of this paper is that homoousios came straight from Constantine's Hermetic background. As can be clearly seen in the Poimandres, and even more clearly in an inscription mentioned exclusively in the Theosophia, in the theological language of Egyptian paganism the word homoousios meant that the Nous-Father and the Logos-Son, who are two distinct beings, share the same perfection of the divine nature."

However, the council evidently did not force the insertion of the word and instead adopted a text related to the confession of Jerusalem. The role of Constantine remained uncertain during the council.

Assessment

 * Socrates Scholasticus (a 5th-century Christian historian), writing in his own Church History, criticized the Life of Constantine, stating that Eusebius was "more intent on the rhetorical finish of his composition and the praises of the emperor, than on an accurate statement of facts".
 * Edward Gibbon openly distrusted the writings of Eusebius concerning the number of martyrs, by noting a passage in the shorter text of the Martyrs of Palestine attached to the Ecclesiastical History (Book 8, Chapter 2) in which Eusebius introduces his description of the martyrs of the Great Persecution under Diocletian with: "Wherefore we have decided to relate nothing concerning them except the things in which we can vindicate the Divine judgment. ...We shall introduce into this history in general only those events which may be useful first to ourselves and afterwards to posterity." In the longer text of the same work, chapter 12, Eusebius states: "I think it best to pass by all the other events which occurred in the meantime: such as ... the lust of power on the part of many, the disorderly and unlawful ordinations, and the schisms among the confessors themselves; also the novelties which were zealously devised against the remnants of the Church by the new and factious members, who added innovation after innovation and forced them in unsparingly among the calamities of the persecution, heaping misfortune upon misfortune. I judge it more suitable to shun and avoid the account of these things, as I said at the beginning."
 * When his own honesty was challenged by his contemporaries, Gibbon appealed to a chapter heading in Eusebius' Praeparatio evangelica (Book XII, Chapter 31) in which Eusebius discussed "that it will be necessary sometimes to use falsehood as a remedy for the benefit of those who require such a mode of treatment."
 * Although Gibbon refers to Eusebius as the "gravest" of the ecclesiastical historians, he also suggests that Eusebius was more concerned with the passing political concerns of his time than with his duty as a reliable historian.
 * Jacob Burckhardt (19th century cultural historian) dismissed Eusebius as "the first thoroughly dishonest historian of antiquity".
 * Other critics of Eusebius' work cite the panegyrical tone of the Vita, plus the omission of internal Christian conflicts in the Canones, as reasons to interpret his writing with caution.

Alternate views have suggested that Gibbon's dismissal of Eusebius is inappropriate:
 * With reference to Gibbon's comments, Joseph Barber Lightfoot (late 19th century theologian and former Bishop of Durham) pointed out that Eusebius' statements indicate his honesty in stating what he was not going to discuss, and also his limitations as a historian in not including such material. He also discusses the question of accuracy. "The manner in which Eusebius deals with his very numerous quotations elsewhere, where we can test his honesty, is a sufficient vindication against this unjust charge." Lightfoot also notes that Eusebius cannot always be relied on: "A far more serious drawback to his value as a historian is the loose and uncritical spirit in which he sometimes deals with his materials. This shows itself in diverse ways. He is not always to be trusted in his discrimination of genuine and spurious documents."
 * Averil Cameron (professor at King's College London and Oxford) and Stuart Hall (historian and theologian), in their recent translation of the Life of Constantine, point out that writers such as Burckhardt found it necessary to attack Eusebius in order to undermine the ideological legitimacy of the Habsburg empire, which based itself on the idea of Christian empire derived from Constantine, and that the most controversial letter in the Life has since been found among the papyri of Egypt.
 * In Church History (Vol. 59, 1990), Michael J. Hollerich (assistant professor at the Jesuit Santa Clara University, California) replies to Burckhardt's criticism of Eusebius, that "Eusebius has been an inviting target for students of the Constantinian era. At one time or another they have characterized him as a political propagandist, a good courtier, the shrewd and worldly adviser of the Emperor Constantine, the great publicist of the first Christian emperor, the first in a long succession of ecclesiastical politicians, the herald of Byzantinism, a political theologian, a political metaphysician, and a caesaropapist. It is obvious that these are not, in the main, neutral descriptions. Much traditional scholarship, sometimes with barely suppressed disdain, has regarded Eusebius as one who risked his orthodoxy and perhaps his character because of his zeal for the Constantinian establishment." Hollerich concludes that "the standard assessment has exaggerated the importance of political themes and political motives in Eusebius's life and writings and has failed to do justice to him as a churchman and a scholar".

While many have shared Burckhardt's assessment, particularly with reference to the Life of Constantine, others, while not pretending to extol his merits, have acknowledged the irreplaceable value of his works which may principally reside in the copious quotations that they contain from other sources, often lost.

Veneration
The earliest recorded feast day of Eusebius is found in the earliest known Syrian Martyrology dating to the year 411 translated by William Wright. The Martyrology lists his feast day as May 30. Eusebius continues to be venerated as a Saint by the modern-day Syrian Orthodox Church as well, with a feast day on February 29 according to the official calendar of Saints created by Corbishop Rajan Achen.

Eusebius was long venerated in the Roman Catholic Church. Bishop J.B. Lightfoot writes in his entry for St. Eusebius in Henry Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century AD, with an Account of Principal Sects and Heresies (1911) that "in the Martyrologium Romanum itself he held his place for centuries" and in "Gallican service-books the historian is commemorated as a saint." However, Lightfoot notes that in "the revision of this Martyrology under Gregory XIII his name was struck out, and Eusebius of Samosata was substituted, under the mistaken idea that Caesarea had been substituted for Samosata by a mistake." The Roman Catholic author Henri Valois includes in his translations on Eusebius' writings testimonies of ancient authors in favor and against Eusebius, to which in the favor category he includes evidence of Eusebius in several martyrologies and being called a "Blessed" dating back to Victorius of Aquitaine. Valois includes both Usuardus and Notker, who list his feast as June 21 in the Roman Martyrology, and a Gallican breviary is included for June 21 that reads as follows: Of the holy Eusebius, bishop and confessor. Lesson 1. Eusebius, bishop of Cæsarea in Palestine, on account of his friendship with Pamphilus the martyr, took from him the surname of Pamphili; inasmuch as along with this same Pamphilus he was a most diligent investigator of sacred literature. The man indeed is very worthy of being remembered in these times, both for his skill in many things, and for his wonderful genius, and by both Gentiles and Christians he was held distinguished and most noble among philosophers. This man, after having for a time labored in behalf of the Arian heresy, coming to the council of Nicæa, inspired by the Holy Spirit, followed the decision of the Fathers, and thereafter up to the time of his death lived in a most holy manner in the orthodox faith. Lesson 2. He was, moreover, very zealous in the study of the sacred Scriptures, and along with Pamphilus the martyr was a most diligent investigator of sacred literature. At the same time he has written many things, but especially the following books: The Præparatio Evangelica, the Ecclesiastical History, Against Porphyry, a very bitter enemy of the Christians; he has also composed Six Apologies in Behalf of Origen, a Life of Pamphilus the Martyr, from whom on account of friendship he took his surname, in three books; likewise very learned Commentaries on the hundred and fifty Psalms. Lesson 3. Moreover, as we read, after having ascertained the sufferings of many holy martyrs in all the provinces, and the lives of confessors and virgins, he has written concerning these saints twenty books; while on account of these books therefore, and especially on account of his Præparatio Evangelica, he was held most distinguished among the Gentiles, because of his love of truth he contemned the ancestral worship of the gods. He has written also a Chronicle, extending from the first year of Abraham up to the year 300 AD, which the divine Hieronymus has continued. Finally this Eusebius, after the conversion of Constantine the Great, was united to him by strong friendship as long as he lived.

A bone fragment relic of Eusebius within its original reliquary is on display at the Shrine of All Saints located within St. Martha's Catholic Church in Morton Grove, Illinois.

title: Eusebius