4. Of Nicomedeia in Bithynia, was born towards the end of the first century after Christ. He was a pupil and friend of Epictetus, through whose influence he became a zealous and active admirer of the Stoic philosophy, and more especially of the practical part of the system. He first attracted attention as a philosopher by publishing the lectures (διατριβαί) of his master. This he seems to have done at Athens; and the Athenians were so much delighted with them, that they honoured him with their franchise. Arrian, as we shall see hereafter, had chosen Xenophon as his model in writing, and the Athenians called him the young Xenophon, either from the resemblance of his style to that of Xenophon, or more probably
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from the similarity of his connexion with Epictetus, to that which existed between Xenophon and Socrates. (Photius, p. 17b. ed. Bekker; Suidas, s. v. Ἀρριανός.) In A. D. 124, he gained the friendship of the emperor Hadrian during his stay in Greece, and he received from the emperor's own hands the broad purple, a distinction which conferred upon him not only the Roman citizenship, but the right to hold any of the great offices of state in the Roman empire. From this time Arrian assumed the praenomen Flavius. In A. D. 136, he was appointed praefect of Cappadocia, which was invaded, the year after, by the Alani or Massagetae. He defeated them in a decisive battle, and added to his reputation of a philosopher that of a brave and skilful general. (D. C. 69.15.) Under Antoninus Pius, the successor of Hadrian, Arrian was promoted to the consulship, A. D. 146. In his later years he appears to have withdrawn from public life, and from about A. D. 150, he lived in his native town of Nicomedeia, as priest of Demeter and Persephone (Phot. p. 73b.), devoting himself entirely to study and the composition of historical works. He died at an advanced age in the reign of M. Aurelius. Dio Cassius is said to have written a life of Arrian shortly after his death, but no part of it has come down to us. (Suid. s. v. Δίων.)[L.S]