Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/826

Rh «12 LUCIANUS. bishoprick, under the metropolitan of Heracleia, of whom Lucian appeared as the representative in the council of Chalcedon. Lucian's name is subscribed to a decretal of Gennadius I., patriarch of Constan- tinople (a. d. 459 to 471), as Lucian, "bishop of the Metropolitan see of By za,"e?n'(rK07ros jjur^Tpoiro- Aews Buf'Tjs. ( Concilia^ vol. iv. col. 908, ed. Labbe ; vol, ii. col. 707, ed. Hardouin ; vol. vii. col. 541, ed. Mansi ; Le Quien, Oriens Chrislianzis, vol. i. col. 1146 ; Cave, Hist. Liti, ad ann. 457.) 3. Of Caphargamala (a village in the neigh- bourhood of Jerusalem), more commonly called HiEROsoLYMiTANUS, or of JERUSALEM, au eccle- •siastic of the fifth century. There is extant in a Latin version an epistle of his addressed to the whole church or body of Christians in all the world, giving an account of the appearance to him, as he slept one night in the baptistery of the church, as was his custom, of Gamaliel (the teacher of the apostle Paul), who revealed to him the burial-place of his own relics and those of his son Abibus or Abibas, his nephew Nicodemus (the same that came to Jesus Christ by night), and of the proto- martyr Stephen. The Latin version was made by Avitus of Bracara, now Braga, in Portugal, a con- temporary of Lucian, who dictated it to Avitus in Greek (it is doubtful if he wrote it in that lan- guage) ; and is usually accompanied by a prefatory letter of Avitus to Palchonius or Balconius, bishop of Bracara. A brief abstract of an account of the vision of Lucian by Chrysippus, an ecclesiastic of Jerusalem, is given by Photius {Bibl. Cod. 171) from the work of Eustratius on the state of the soul after death. Of the Latin version of Lucian's Epistola there are two copies, differing in several respects from each other. That published by Ulimmerius, and commonly designated from him, is given by Surius {De Probatis Sandor. Vitis, ad diem II. August.),; and in the Appendix to the editions of Augustin by the Theologians of Louvain (vol. X. p. 6.'j0, &c.) and the Benedictines (vol. vii.) According to this copy, the vision of Lucian took place 3d Dec. 415. The other copy, which omits the date of the vision, is also given by the Benedictines, in parallel columns, to facilitate com- parison. (Gennadius, De Vilis lUusir. c. 46, 47 ; Photius, /. c. ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. x. p. 327 ; Cave, Hist. Litt. ad ann. 415.) 4. HlEROSOLYMlTANUS, Or of JERUSALEM. [No. 3.] 5. The Martyr. [No. 1.] 6. Metropolita. [No. 2.] 7. Pasiphon {Tla(n(pwv a writer to whom Fa- vorinus [Favorinus, No. 1], according to Dio- genes Laertius (vi. 73) ascribed the tragedies which were more commonly attributed to Diogenes the Cynic [Diogenes], or to Philistus of Aegina, his disciple. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. li. pp. 295, 296, and 309.) 8. The Presbyter. [Nos. 1 and 3.] 9. Of Samosata. [See below, and also No. 1.] 10. The Tragic Writer. [No. 7.] [J. CM.] LUCIANUS* (AoL/Kiar/os), also called Lycinus, a witty and voluminous Greek writer, but of Syrian parentage, having been born, as he himself tells us, at Samosata, the capital of Commagene. ('AXteiJs, § 19 ; news Sei iVr. (Txryyp. § 24.) There is no in Lucianus; but Lucian himself makes it short in his first epigram, AocKtavos rd'^ eyoarl/e^ &c. LUCIANUS. ancient biography of Lucian extant, except t:e short and inaccurate one by Suidas ; but some particulars may be gleaned from his own writings. Considerable difference of opinion has existed respecting the time in which Lucian flourished. Suidas places him under Trajan, and subsequently, and in this he is followed by Bourdelot. The opinion of VoKs {De Hisior. Graec. ii. 15), that he flourished in the reigns of M. Aurelius Antoninus and Commodus seems, however, more correct, and has been generally followed by later critics. It is impossible to fix the exact dates of his birth and death, but the following passages will afford some clue to his chronology. In the TLpds aVaiSeuTOJ', § 1 3, he tells us that there existed in Ms time, and was probably still alive, a man who had bought the lamp of Epictetus for 3000 drachms, in the hope of inheriting his wisdom. As this purchase was probably made shortly after the death of Epictetus, the natural inference is, that Lucian was alive in the time of that philosopher (hardly that Epictetus died before the time of Lucian, as Mr. Clinton says. Fasti Rom. a. d. 1 18). The uncer- tainty expressed as to whether the purchaser was still alive denotes that a considerable period had elapsed between the transaction recorded and the date of the U.p6s diraibiVTov. But that piece can be shown to have been written shortly after the extraordinary suicide of Peregrinus, a. d. 165 ; for in $ 14 Lucian mentions another silly fellow who had just recently purchased (x^^s koX Trpdrfy) the stick of the fanatical cynic for a talent. Now Epictetus could hardly have survived the reign of Hadrian, who died A. D. 138 (Epictetus, and Clinton, /. c), and it is more likely that he did not reach the middle of it. On these grounds we might" at a venture place Lucian's birth about the year 120 ; and this date tallies pretty well with other inferences from his writings. The Tlws Set LCTTopiav avyYpdcpeii/ must have been nearly con- temporary with the Upos aTraidevTou, since it al- ludes to the Parthian victories of Verus (Clinton, A. D. 166), but was probably written before the final triumph, as from an expression in § 2 (to. iv TTocri ravra KeKiyrirai) the war would seem to have been still going on. These pieces, together with the account of the death of Peregriims {Uepl T7JS TIepeypivov reAeur^s), which has all the air of a narrative composed immediately after the event it records, are the earliest works of Lucian which we can connect with any public transactions. But he tells us that he did not abandon the rhetorical profession, and take to a different style of writing, till he was about forty (Ajs Kar-nyop. § 34) ; and though he there more particularly alludes to his Dialogues, we may very probably include in the same category all his other works, which, like the preceding, are unconnected with rhetoric. If these were his first works of that kind, and if he was forty when he wrote them, he would have been born about the year 125. They were, how- ever, in all probability preceded by some others, such as the Hermotimus, which he mentions having written about forty (§ 13), the Nigrinus, &c. This brings us again to the year 120, as a very probable one in which to fix his birth ; and thus he might have been contemporary as a boy with Epictetus, then in his old age ; and with the man who bought his lamp, some 30 or 35 years, perhaps, before 165. A passage which alludes to later political events occurs in the Alexander, § 48, where mention is
 * According to analogy, the a ought to be long