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in Byth.inia, and flourifhcd in the latter end of the fird 
and the beginning of the fecond century of the Chriftian 
era. He was dittinguiHied by the excellence of his moral 
charadler; by the difinteredednefs of his fentiments ; and 
by the boldnefs with which he cenfured vice. He is re¬ 
ported to have exerted his utmoft powers of perfuafion 
to induce V.efpafian to relinquifh the imperial dignity ; 
and it is honourable to that emperor’.s memory, that he 
did not take offence at the freedom of the philofopher. 
Under the reign of Domitian he drew on himfelf the re- 
fentment of that tyrant, by the liberty with which he 
animadverted on his flagitious proceedings ; and found 
it neceffary for the prefervatior. of his life "to retire pri¬ 
vately from Rome, and to go into voluntary exile. He 
retired to the extremity of the Roman empire, in the vi¬ 
cinity of the Scythian tribes, where he was reduced to 
great poverty, and obliged to fupport himfelf by manual 
labour. He returned to Rome with fafety and honour 
early in the reign of the emperor Nerva. By that prince, 
and by his fuccelfor Trajan, he had beftowed upon him 
many public marks of favour. According to fome wri¬ 
ters, he affected an extreme feverity of manners, and An¬ 
gularity of drefs, appearing often in public clothed in a 
lion’s (kin. He lived to old age, as he himfelf informs 
us; but the time of his death is uncertain. From his 
orations and difcourfes (till extant, upon political, moral, 
and philofophical, fubjedts, it appears that he poffeffed 
a found judgment and lively fancy. Synefius has paid 
him the compliment of faying, that he may be compared 
at once to an eagle and to a fvvan, on account of the qua¬ 
lities which were united in him both of the philofopher 
and rhetorician. The beff edition of his works is that 
intitled Dionis Chryfojlo'mi Orationcs, Gr. & Lat. ex Reccntione 
& cum Nvtis Frcderici Morelli, nec non Ifaaci Cafauboni Dia- 
triba , Lut. Par. 1604, folio. In the year 1800, Englifh 
literature was enriched by an elegant verfion of fome of 
his feledt pieces on political, moral, and critical, fubjedts, 
from the pen of the late learned Gilbert Wakefield. 
DIOCE'SAN, f A bifltop, as he (lands related to his 
own clergy or flock.—I have heard it has been advifed 
by a diocefan to his inferior clergy, that they fhould read 
Tome of the mod celebrated fermons printed by others. 
Taller. 
DI'OCESE, or Diocess,/! [ dioccfc , Fr. dioceji, Ital. 
and Span, how/icrig, of and oixsa, to govern, Gr. 
dicecejis , Lat.] The circuit of every bifliop’s jurifdidlion ; 
for this realm hath two forts of divifions; one into (hires 
or counties, in refpedt to the temporal (late ; and ano¬ 
ther into diocefes, in regard to the ecclefiaftical (late, of 
which we reckon twenty-one in England, and four in 
Wales. Alio the kingdom is faid to be divided in its 
ecclefiaffical jurifdidlion into two provinces, of Canter¬ 
bury and York ; each of which provinces is divided into 
diocefes, and every diocefe into archdeaconries, and arch¬ 
deaconries into parilhes, &c. Wood'slnjl. 2. The bounds 
of diocefes are to be determined by witneffes and records, 
but more particularly by the adminidration of divine of¬ 
fices. To which purpofe, there are two rules in the 
canon law: in one cafe, upon a difpute between two 
bifhops upon this head, the direction is, that they pro¬ 
ceed in the bufinefs, by ancient books or writings, and 
alfo by witneffes of reputation, and other fufficient proof: 
in the other cafe, where the queftion was, by whom a 
church built upon the confines of two diocefes fhould be 
confecrated, the rule laid down is, that it (liould be con- 
fecrated by the bilitop of that city, who, before it was 
founded, baptized the inhabitants, and adminiftered to 
them other divine offices. Gibf. 133. The jurifdidlion of 
the city is not included in the name of diocefe, fo faith 
the canon law: and accordingly, in citations in general 
vifitations, diredled to the clergy, it is ordered to cite the 
clergy of the city and diocefe. A bifltop may perform 
divine offices, and ufe his epilcopal habit, in the diocefe 
of another, without leave; but may not perform therein 
any adt of jurifdidlion, without permillion of the other 
Vol. V. No. 318. 
bifltop. A clergyman dwelling in one diocefe, and bene- 
ficecl in another, and being guilty of a crime, may, frt 
diff erent refpedls, be puniffiedin both ; that is, the bifltop 
in whofe diocefe he dwells, may profecute him; but the 
fentence, fo far as it aftedls his benefice, muff be carried 
into execution by the other bifltop. Gibf 134. 
DIOCLE' A,f. in antiquity, a feftival kept in the fpring 
at Megara, in memory of the Athenian hero Diodes. 
DI'OCLES, an eminent mathematician, concerning 
whofe time nothing farther is now' known than that he 
lived before the commencement of the fifth century. His 
name will for ever defcend to pofterity, on account of his 
having been the inventor of the cilfoid, a curve line of 
the fecond order, commonly called the ciffoid of Diodes, 
which is reckoned by Newton among the defective hy¬ 
perbolas, and is made ufe of for finding two continued 
mean proportionals between two other given lines. 
DIOCLE'TIAN (C. Valerius Aurelius), one of the 
mod illuftrious of the Roman emperors, though the fon 
of a (lave. See the article Rome. 
DIOCLE'TIAN ERA,/. This emperor’s bloody per¬ 
fection of the Chriftians forms a chronological era, 
called the era of Diocletian , or of the martyrs. It was 
for a long time in ufe in theological writings, and is dill 
followed by the Copts and Abyffmians. It commenced 
Augud 29, 284. 
DIOD A'TI (John), a celebrated divine, born at Lucca 
about the year 1389, and defeended from a noble family 
of the catholic perfuafion ; but having in early life em¬ 
braced the protedant faith, he removed to Geneva, where 
lie applied himfelf with fuch affiduity to Iris dudies, that, 
at the age of nineteen years, he was deemed qualified for 
the profefforffiip of Hebrew in that univerflty. Some 
time afterwards he w'as appointed to the office of profeffor 
of theology, and acquired much reputation by his con¬ 
duct in that department, as well as by his pulpit fervices. 
In 1619, he was deputed, with his colleague Theodore 
Tronchin, to reprefent the Genevan clergy in the famous 
fynod of Dort. So highly were his abilities refpedled by 
that fynod, that he was one of the fix miniders appointed 
to draw up the Belgic confeflion of faith, which was in¬ 
tended to fecure the profeffors of the reformed religion 
in Holland within the pale of pure and unadulterated 
Calvinifm. He died at Geneva in 1652. Among the 
different works which he publidied, his greated reputa¬ 
tion arole from a tranflation of the Bible into the Italian 
language, which fird appeared at Geneva in 1607, in 
quarto, with notes ; and was afterwards reprinted in 1641, 
folio, in an improved date. The New Tedament was 
printed feparately at Geneva in 1608, and at Amfferdam 
and Haerlem in 1665. He alfo publidied at Geneva, in 
1644, folio, a tranflation of the Bible into the French 
language ; and he gave the fird French tranflation of 
Father Paul’s Hiflory of the Council of Trent, in folio. 
According to Spanheim and Grotius, Diodati Was alfo 
the author of two tranllations from the Englifli, one into 
the French and the other into the Italian language, of 
Sir Edwyn Sandys’s Europcc Speculum, or View of the 
State of Religion in the Weflern Parts of the World, 1626, 
8vo. with confiderable additions to the fird ten chapters, 
written by the celebrated father Paul. 
DIO'DIA,/i [^loci'ios, fubviatica, from its growing by 
way (ides.] In botany, a genus of the clafs tetrandria, 
order monogynia, natural order of dellatse, (rubiaceas, 
Juff.) The generic characters are—Calyx: perianthium 
two or four leaved ; leaflets fubovate, fuperior equal, 
permanent. Corolla: one-petalled, funnel-form; tube 
(lender, long ; border fmall, fpreading, four-parted ; divi- 
(ions lanceolate. Stamina: filaments four, b: iffle-fliaped, 
upright; antherae verfatile. Pidillum: germ roundilli, 
four-lided, inferior ; dyle filiform, length of the ftamens; 
fligma two-cleft. Pericarpium : capfule ovate, lour cor¬ 
nered, crowned, larger than the calyx, two-celled, two- 
valved; (valvelefs, bipartile, eight-furrowed, Gasrtner.) 
Seed: folitary, ovate-oblong, even, convex on one (ids. 
