Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/1056

Rh 1038 DIONYSIUS. succeeded him in the see, a. d. 247. During the persecution of the Christians by Decius, Dionysius was seized by the soldiers and carried to Taposiris, a small town between Alexandria and Can opus, probably with a view of putting him to death there. But he escaped from captivity in a manner which he himself describes very minutely {ap. Euseb. Hist. Ecd-. vi. 40). He had, however, to suffer still more severely in a. d. 257, during the perse- cution which the emperor Valerian instituted against the Christians. Dionysius made an open confession of his faith before the emperor's praefect Aemilianus, and was exiled in consequence to Cephro, a desert district of Libya, whither he was compelled to proceed forthwith, although he was severely ill at the time. After an exile of three years, an edict of Gallienus in favour of the Chris- tians enabled him to return to Alexandria, where henceforth he was extremely zealous in combating heretical opinions. In his attacks against Sabellius he was carried so far by his zeal, that he uttered things which were themselves incompatible with the orthodox faith ; but when he was taken to ac- count by Dionysius, bishop of Rome, who convoked a s}Tiod for the purpose, he readily owned that he liad acted rashly and inconsiderately. In a. d. 265 he was invited to a synod at Antioch, to dispute with Paulas of Samosata, but being prevented from going thither by old age and infirmity, he wrote a letter to the synod on the subject of the contro- versy to be discussed, and soon after, in the same year, he died, after having occupied the see of Alexandria for a period of seventeen years. The church of Rome regards Dionysius as a saint, and celebrates his memory on the 18th of October. We leani from Epiphanes {Haeres. 69), that at Alexandria a church was dedicated to him. Dio- nysius wrote a considerable number of theological works, consisting partly of treatises and partly of epistles addressed to the heads of churches and to communities, but all that is left us of them consists of fragments preserved in Eusebius and others. A complete list of his works is given by Cave, from which we mention only the most import- ant. 1. On Promises, in two books, was di- rected against Nepos, and two considerable frag- ments of it are still extant. (Euseb. H. E. in. 28, vii. 24.) 2. A work addressed to Dionysius, bishop of Rome, in four books or epistles, against Sabellius. Dionysius here excused the hasty assertions of which he himself had been guilty in attacking Sabellius. A great number of fragments and extracts of it are preserved in the writings of Athanasius and Basilius. 3. A work addressed to Timotheus, " On Nature," of which extracts are preserved in Eusebius. {Praep. Evang. xiv. 23, 27.) Of his Epistles also numerous fx-agments are extant in the works of Eusebius. All that is extant of Dionysius, is collected in Gallandi's DM. Pair. iii. p. 481, &c., and in the separate collection by Simon de Magistris, Rome, 1796, foL (Cave, Hist. Lit. i. p. 95, &c.) 3. Of Alexandria, a son of Glaucus, a Greek grammarian, who flourished from the time of Nero to that of Trajan. He was secretary and librarian to the emperors in whose reign he lived, and was also employed in embassies. He was the teacher of the grammarian Parthenius, and a pupil of the philosopher Chaeremon, whom he also succeeded at Alexandria, (Athen. xi. p. 501 ; Suid. s. v. Liovvaios ; Eudoc. p. 133.) | DIONYSIUS. 4. Of Antioch, a sophist, who seems to have been a Christian, and to be the same person as the one to whom the nineteenth letter of Aeneas of Gaza is addressed. Pie himself is the reputed author of 46 letters, which are still extant. A Latin version of them was first printed by G. Cognatus, in his " Epistolae Laconicae," Basel, 1554, r2mo., and afterwards in J. Buchler's " Thesaurus Epist. Lacon.," 1606, 12mo. The Greek original was first edited by H. Stephens, in his Collection of Greek Epistles, Paris, 1577, 8vo, Meursius is inclined to attribute these Epistles to Dionysius of Miletus, without, however, assigning any reason for it 5. Sumamed Areiopageita, an Athenian, who is called by Suidas a most eminent man, who rose to the height of Greek erudition. He is said to have first studied at Athens, and afterwards at Heliopolis in Eg3'pt. When he observed in Egypt the eclipse of the sun, which occurred during the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, he is said to have ex- claimed, " either God himself is suffering, or he sympathises with some one who is suffering." On his return to Athens he was made one of the council of the Areiopagus, whence he derives his surname. About a. d. 50, when St. Paul preached at Athens, Dionysius became a Christian {The Acts, xvii. 34), and it is said that he was not only the first bishop of Athens, but that he was installed in that office by St. Paul himself. (Euseb. //. E. iii. 4, iv. 23 ; Suidas.) He is further said to have died the death of a martyr under most cruel tor- tures. Whether Dionysius Areiopageita ever wrote anything, is highly uncertain ; but there exists under his name a number of works of a mystico- Christian nature, which contain ample evidence that they are the productions of some Neo- Platonist, and can scarcely have been written before the fifth or sixth century of our era. With- out entering upon any detail about those works, which would be out of place here, we need only remark, that they exercised a very great in- fluence upon the formation and development of Christianity in the middle ages. At the time of the Carlovingian emperors, those works were in- troduced into western Europe in a Latin transla- tion made by Scotus Erigena, and gave the first impulse to that mystic and scholastic theology which afterwards maintained itself for centuiies. (Fabric. BibL Gr. vii. p. 7, &c. ; Bilhr, Gesch. der Rom. Lit. im Karoliiig. Zeiialler, § 187.) 6. A son of Arkius, the teacher and friend of Augustus, who also profited by his intercourse with the sons of Areius, Dionysius, and Nicanor. (Sueton. Aug. 89; comp. Areius.) 7. Sumamed Ascalaphus, seems to have written an exegesis of the Theodoris, a melic poem on Eros. (Etym. M. s. v. Aiofvaios ; Athen. xi. p. 475.) 8. Of Argos, seems to have been an historian, as he is quoted by Clemens of Alexandria {Strom. I. p. 139) respecting the time at which Troy was taken. (Comp. Schol. ad Pifid. Nein. ii. 1.) 9. Of Athens, is quoted by the Scholiast on ApoUonius Rhodius (ii. 279) as the author of a work entitled KvricTiiSy that is, on conception or birth, which is also mentioned in the Etymologicum Magnum (s. v. YlpoiKovvTnaos), where, however, the reading KTriaaiv should be corrected into Kinjaea-iy, and not into KTicrecriv, as Sylburg proposes. 10. A frccdman of Atticus, whose full name