BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF AllUIAN. bb 



nica," a lost work on the subject of his native country, he was 

 priest of Ceres and Proserpine, to whom the city of Nicomedia 

 was sacred. His fondness for pohte literature, and celebrity 

 for philosophical knowledge, acquired him the honour of the 

 twofold citizensliip. But, though a friend and disciple of Aniani Bithy- 



nica et Paithica 



Epictetus, and the first recorder of his Stoical Apophthegms — apud Photii Ec- 



, ^, , ~ ^ , - ym ' 1 logas. 



(pt\ocro(pog ju.ev sTTKrTri^Yjv, eij toov ofJuXYjTwv jEttjxti^tou, he appears, 

 like the elder Xenophon, to have been much engaged in 

 military affairs ; and as Roman prefect of Cappadocia, in the 

 reign of Hadrian, to have taken an active part in the war 

 against the Alani and Massagetse, a people bred to eternal 

 warfare — 



duros atemi Martis Alanos. Lucan. Pharsal. 



L. VIII. 



It is related by Dion Cassius, and the epitomizer Xiphilin, 

 that the Scythian barbarians under Pharasmanes having com- 

 mitted great havock and spoil in Media, (A.D. 136.) had 

 begun to threaten Armenia and Cappadocia ; but finding Fla- Dion. Cassii 



. . , r n T 1 • 1 Uist. Roman. 



vms Arrianus, the prelect ot the latter provmce, better pre- l. lxix. 

 pared for their reception than they had anticipated, they were 

 induced, partly by the bribes of Vologsesus, and partly through 

 fear of the governor, to retire from the territory under his 

 jurisdiction. 



Suidas, on the authority of Heliconius, states that Arrian 

 was advanced to the senatorial and consular dignities, and that 

 he was denominated " the second Xenophon" from the sweet- 

 ness of his literary style. And Photius also, in his " Eclogae," 

 speaking of our author's " Parthica" observes, kirmofiai^ov uvtov 

 Sevoi^wvTct vsor Sia 8= to Ttaihlug STrtariixov, aXXa; re itoXnutas 

 o-pX^i e7r»a"Tsu5>], xai slg to twv (jiruToiv avs^ri Ts\og : and again he 

 adds, 8^Xov Is wg ouSe pvjTopjx^j <ro<^iaj re xa» Suva/xscoj utcsKzIttsto. 



Like his namesake, as I have remarked, he united the 

 character of a man of letters with that of a warrior, dedicating 



