DIONYSIUS. 
He came to Rome B. C. 30, and paffed more than 
twenty years in that capital. Here he employed himfeif ia 
Rudying the Latin language, in converfing with men o 
learning, and in carefully perufing the ancient Roman hif- 
Caria, 
torians. Fron their works he compiled his * Roman Ane 
tiquities,”? in “whi the hiitory of the city was brought 
down to ft- Puri r work originally con- 
fitted of twenty — 
down to us. onyfius wrote alfo 
tical fubjecs, ate his « Caney ons of fome Ancient Fif- 
torians’? and ‘* Treatife on the Struéture of Langua e,”” 
are well known to the moderns. ‘The ftyle of this writer 
is flat and languid, but he is oe as an accurate hitto- 
rian; and judicious in his narratives. oreri. 
Dionysius, called the Laie from his being amem- 
ber of the court of Areopagus, at gees s, was probably 
ac- 
quirements at Athens and at Heliopolis, : in Syria, are faid to 
have been confiderable, and we may infer fom the fation 
which be occupied that his dua aer was refpectable. ‘T'ra- 
dition sd that he was the firft bifhop of Athens, ap- 
pointed to that office by the apoftle Paul ; ; and that he was 
one of the early Chriftians, ae cred martyrdom 
bably under Domitian, § l works have been due 
to Dionylius, which were printed a ogne in the yea 
t Col in 
1536, and which have been frequently pein with various 
commentaries. complete editions are thofe 
Antwerp, in 1634, and of Paris, in 1644, both in re 
volumes folio. It is now, however, the general opinion of 
learned men, that they are sede though they differ in 
opinion agen the time when they were written. The 
n erally received is, tha 
a 
ry. James Bafnage 
works mentions no books o 
¢ books 
Daillé fays, that he omits no facred 
Old or New Teftament; however «6 the 
” alone is eae ehiaeapia 
next ae the ee 
Cave’s H. L. vol. i. 
Dioxysrus, bifhop of Corinth, 
emperors Marcus Antoninus and Commodus, about the year 
170. Some havea bla but without fufficient authority, 
that he was a martyr. St. Jerom reprefents him as a man 
of great eloquence and indultry, and 
"8 rab. . Gr. ey 
s 
ot ene 
Of thefe atic 
we have remaining only fome fragments cited by Eufebius ; 
but janie eem . evince the genuinenefs of the Chriftian 
{criptures, and to pourtray the judgment, oe and 
pesceabl ‘oi of a author. Cave’s H. L. vol. i. Lard- 
s Wor 
“Diane » bitho op and probably native of Alexan 
fucceeded eaeaa in the chair of the annie fohool of 
that city, A.D. 231 or 232, and upon h was chofen 
bifhop in his room, A.D. 247 or 248. He died in the 12th 
year of the emperor Gallienus, in the year of Chrift 264 or 
265. Dionyfius was defcended from a Gentile family of 
rank and wealth; and after his converfion to the Chrifian 
faith, became a difciple of Origen, and was afterwards num- 
bered among his mott diltinguifhed fenolars. The period of 
his epiicapate was peculiarly trying and difficu't, but fren 
onducted him 
and other puulic calam fae” together me private 
com motions, in which Alexandria was apneic It was 
alfo at this time that the Chriltian church was agitated by 
the controverties about oe ifm, the Mulennium, the 
La ned n en r Decins’ 3 eH “ot 
ce aon. which was eel he eae in the be- 
ginnin of th » Dionyfius was feized by order of 
Sabinus, prefect of Egvpt, and c ted to cuftody at 
Tapofyris, a {mall aes in that part of Egypt called 
Mareotis. But being refcued from this confinement, he 
retired toa defert part of Lrbya till the termication of 
this perfecution, when he bovis to his charge at Alex- 
andria a time - se ode 
of the perfecution under 
aft 
Valerian and nee on “Gal es befor the end of the year 
257, Dicnyfius was fummoned before Emilian, then prefect 
of Egypt ; who ie him to renounce the Chriflian re- 
riflias 
ligion ; but to this authoritative mandate the bifhop replied, 
without hefitation, that we ought to obey God rather than 
man (Acts, v. 29.), and affured the pretet, that he was a 
worihipper of _ one God, and could worfhip no other, 
nor could he ever ceafe to be a Chriftian. Upon which he 
ordered Dinas and his affociates to a place called Cephro, 
in 
, and of zeal in promoting t 
quillity of the Chriftian church. 
and treatifes which were written by him maining 
only one entire epiftle, and confiderable fragments of others 
preferved by Eufebius. In the controverfies of his time, Dio- 
he endeavoured to a 
tions that fabiihed between Stephen bifhop of 
Cyprian bifhop of Carthage ; and the letters vies te wrote 
a 
abellius concerning the Trinity, and again 
Samofata, whofe peculiar opinions will appear under their 
refpedtive ances ae onyfius’s own opinion, with regard to 
Trin 
the Trinity, feems to have se much the fame with Sal of 
Ariu Entebiue’s. 1. vi. and vii. Cave’s Hitt, vol. i. 
Fab. Bib. Gree. T. v. Lardner? s Works, vol. iii. 
“stus, pope, or bifhop of Rome, was advanced 
from the office re prefbyter to the epifcopal ee me this 
city, July 22, A.D. 259, and died December 26th, A. D, 
4k 
Qe 
